Oh, super-cool! We've been hugely excited for a couple of years over the forthcoming High-Line redesign, but we totally missed covering a similar project up in Poughkeepsie. The Walkway Over the Hudson Project is poised to convert the Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge to a pedestrian park-- can you imagine how cool it would be to have a picnic in the summer high above the river? From their site:
Walkway Over the Hudson is a not for profit corporation dedicated to preserving the historic Poughkeepsie Highland Railroad Bridge and turning it into a park. When it opened in 1888 the Railroad Bridge was the longest span in the world. Its cantilever truss design was considered an engineering marvel. A fire in 1974 closed the bridge and it seemed to be headed for destruction.
Walkway, working hand in hand with officials on both sides of the Hudson River managed to halt the demolition. We are now the owners of the Poughkeepsie Highland Railroad Bridge as well as all the land under it. Listed in the National Registry of Historic Places the Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge is about to be transformed into a public park of national and regional significance.
High above the Hudson River the natural landscape meets the built environment. Walkway Over the Hudson: a place to walk, sit, ride bicycles, a place to enjoy the river and a place to appreciate the wonder of an engineering feat unprecedented in its time with a beauty unsurpassed in ours.
The bridge is 6,767 feet long, which is a little over a mile-- could be fun for a short bike ride if they let people bring bikes up on the path. Just one word of caution to the architects: buy some sturdy fences, or you are going to see quite a few Vassar kids falling over the rails at night due to acute alcohol and narcotic intoxication. And to our urban explorer friends: has anyone ever been up on the bridge? What's it like?
