Rosendale Trestle | |
---|---|
Coordinates | 41°50′36″N74°05′18″W / 41.84333°N 74.08833°W |
Carries | Wallkill Valley Rail Trail, formerly Wallkill Valley Railroad |
Crosses | |
Locale | Rosendale, New York, United States |
Characteristics | |
Design | Post truss [1] |
Material | Steel |
Total length | 940 feet (290 m) [2] |
Width | 6 ft (1,829 mm) (broad gauge) [1] |
No. of spans | 9 |
Clearance below | 150 feet (46 m) above the water [3] |
History | |
Constructed by |
|
Fabrication by | Carnegie Steel Company |
Construction start | 1870 |
Construction end | 1872 |
Inaugurated | April 6, 1872 |
Location | |
The Rosendale Trestle is a 940-foot (290-meter) continuous truss bridge and former railroad trestle in Rosendale Village, a hamlet in the town of Rosendale in Ulster County, New York. Originally constructed by the Wallkill Valley Railroad to continue its rail line from New Paltz to Kingston, the bridge rises 150 ft (46 m) above Rondout Creek, spanning both Route 213 and the former Delaware and Hudson Canal. Construction on the trestle began in late 1870, and continued until early 1872. When it opened to rail traffic on April 6, 1872, the Rosendale trestle was the highest span bridge in the United States.
The trestle was rebuilt in 1895 by the King Bridge Company to address public concerns regarding its stability, and it has been repeatedly reinforced throughout its existence. Concern over the sturdiness of the trestle has persisted since its opening, and was a major reason Conrail closed the Wallkill Valley rail line in 1977. After the rail line's closure, Conrail sold the bridge in 1986 for one dollar to John E. Rahl, a private area businessman, who tried unsuccessfully to operate the trestle as a bungee jumping platform in the 1990s. A similar attempt was made the following decade. The trestle was seized by the county in 2009 for tax nonpayment, and renovated as a pedestrian walkway for the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail. The deck and railings now continue all the way across the trestle, and access is from a parking lot about 1⁄4 mile (400 meters) north on Binnewater Road. It opened to the public with a celebration on June 29, 2013.
In 1870, the Wallkill Valley Railroad operated trains between Montgomery and New Paltz, New York, [4] and began building a 413-foot (126 m) [5] bridge south of Rosendale, at Springtown Road, to cross the Wallkill River. [6] The Springtown bridge was completed by 1871, and the rail line was opened north to the town of Rosendale. [4] Rosendale issued $92,800 in bonds on May 13, 1869, to finance its portion of the railroad. [7]
Though the trestle was difficult to build, [8] and viewed as weak by modern standards, [9] it was remarkable for its time, [10] and can be considered the "most awesome part" of the Wallkill Valley rail line. [3] Construction on the bridge's abutments began in August, 1870 by A. L. Dolby & Company, but work on the superstructure by the Waston Manufacturing Company did not begin until the following year due to problems with quicksand during the excavation. [11] [12] Sections of the superstructure were built in Paterson, New Jersey. [13] The bridge originally had seven wrought-iron spans and two shorter wooden spans; [3] the longer spans were each [14] 105 feet (32 m) in length. [13] The bridge cost $250,000 to build, [15] and followed a Post truss design. [1] Roughly 1,000 short tons (910 t) of iron and 420,000 board feet (990 m3) of timber went into its construction. At the time of its completion in January, 1872, it had the highest span of any bridge in the United States. [11] [12] Due to its height, it could "scarcely be crossed for the first time without something like a feeling of terror". [16] The bridge allowed the rail line to continue north to Kingston. [3]
The bridge was opened on April 6, 1872, in a ceremony attended by 5,000 people, [11] including prominent men from across Ulster, Orange, and Dutchess counties. One of the spectators was James S. McEntee, Esq., an engineer who had worked on the Delaware and Hudson Canal in 1825. He was the only person to have seen both "the passage of the first loaded boat through the canal and the first train over the bridge which spans it". [17] A 4-4-0 locomotive with five boxcars and two passenger cars made the inaugural run. Many spectators doubted the strength of the bridge, and believed that the trestle would collapse under the weight of the train. The bridge appeared unaffected by the strain, and an increasing number of people rode over the bridge during the second and third runs. [3]
A. L. Dolby & Company was contracted to complete the rail line between the bridge and Kingston. The track reached the Kingston Railroad Station in November 1872. [7] By this time, Ulster and Delaware Railroad trains were running regularly to and from Kingston. [lower-alpha 1]
By 1885, the bridge supports were reinforced and the track was converted from broad gauge to standard gauge. [1] In 1888, the Wallkill Valley Railroad received a permit from the town of Rosendale to "construct and maintain abutments to support [the] trestle" as long as such work did not interfere with traffic along the underlying highway (present-day NY 213). That same year, the Delaware and Hudson Canal allowed the railroad to temporarily use some of its property by the Rondout Creek to place bents for bridge repairs. [18] The waterway beneath the trestle could be quite treacherous; so many people drowned that the area became known as "Dead Man's Stretch". [19] There have been reports of ghostly "apparitions" in the area, particularly of a white dog. [20]
The bridge was rebuilt by the King Bridge Company between 1895 and 1896, remaining in use most of the time; [21] the trestle is the only railroad bridge featured in the King Bridge Company catalogs of the 1880s and 1890s that remains standing. [22] The renovation converted the bridge's structure from iron and wood to steel to allay public concerns about its strength; [3] the height of the bridge evoked collapses such as the Tay Bridge disaster. [16] The steel was provided by the Carnegie Steel Company. [21] The renovation raised the bridge's piers by 8 feet (2.4 m) [23] and made the bridge straighter; the original design had a curve on its southern end. [24] One of the northern spans was completed by February, 1896, [25] and the entire reconstruction was finished by June. [26] The layout of the spans was unchanged from the original 1872 design. [3] Following its reconstruction, the bridge was unaffected by the shock of a large cave-in at a nearby Rosendale cement quarry on December 26, 1899, [27] though it was shaken by a nearby boiler explosion that occurred days before the collapse. [28]
From the time of its reconstruction to its eventual closure, passengers continued to have concerns over the trestle. The "speed, weight, and positioning of rolling stock on the bridge" was monitored, [3] and it was repeatedly reinforced to "carry the ever heavier loads of modern railroading". [21] In the 1940s, steam engines carrying heavy loads over the bridge caused the catwalk on the west side of the bridge to shake. [29] By 1975, the rail line had deteriorated to the point where federal regulations allowed only 8-mile-per-hour (13 km/h) traffic over the trestle, [30] though engineers were instructed to go no faster than 5 miles per hour (8.0 km/h). [31] The sturdiness of the bridge, specifically the stability of its piers, was a deciding factor when Conrail (then-owner of the Wallkill Valley rail line) closed its Wallkill Valley Branch on December 31, 1977. [30]
Conrail had begun taking bids on the trestle as early as 1983. [32] An initial offer was made to the town of Rosendale, which refused: unwilling to accept the liability. [33] Conrail sold the bridge, along with 11.5 miles (18.5 km) of the Wallkill Valley rail corridor, in 1986 to a private businessman, John E. Rahl, for one dollar. [34] Rahl took title of the trestle and corridor on July 11, 1986. [32] Included in Rahl's purchase was a train station in Rosendale's hamlet of Binnewater; [35] the station was a part of the Binnewater Historic District. [36] A Rosendale homeowner association had tried to purchase the properties before Rahl, also for one dollar, but Conrail declined their offer. [33]
Rahl, born around 1948 [33] in Washingtonville, was a construction worker [32] and auto mechanic. [33] He lived near the trestle, in a "converted warehouse, whose support beams had once formed the scaffolding for the trestle crews". [32] Rahl's reason for buying the rail line was originally to open a "dining car restaurant" along the corridor, [33] and to establish a tourist railroad from Kingston to the trestle. [9] He claimed the purchase granted him the right to "restore rail service on the whole Wallkill line", [37] and also joint ownership of Conrail: an incredible assertion which did not prevail. [38] Plans to restore service subsequently "didn't pan out". [9] Within one year of the purchase, Rahl sold 11 acres (4.5 ha) of the property to a housing developer. [32] On May 16, 1989, a storm caused such severe damage to the Binnewater station that part of it broke-off and fell into the road; [35] the building was subsequently demolished by the town of Rosendale's highway department. [39]
Between 1989 and 1991, Rahl installed planking and guard rails on the southern half of the bridge, [40] which was then opened to the public. [34] He allowed bungee jumping off the bridge [37] [41] until a January, 1992 court order held that it violated zoning laws. [42] [43] One person tried to execute a bungee jump off the bridge without a restraining cord. [44] The bridge was slightly damaged by a fire in mid-1999, but it was repaired by September of that year. [45]
Douglas Hase, an entrepreneur who had run bungee-jumping and hot air ballooning companies, [46] [47] tried unsuccessfully in 2003 and 2004 to get a variance for another bungee-jumping venture. [40] [43] [48] During a public hearing about Hase's proposal, a county legislator began screaming to simulate the sound neighbours would hear repetitively when people jumped off the bridge. [42]
After Rahl failed to pay $13,716 in property taxes over a period of three years, [41] Ulster County foreclosed on the entire 63.34-acre (25.63 ha) property on April 15, 2009. The Wallkill Valley Land Trust and Open Space Conservancy offered to purchase the property, and the county authorized the sale in July 2009. [49] The sale was completed in late August, 2009. [50] The Land Trust agreed to pay all outstanding taxes before receiving full ownership and adding it to the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail. [51] Ownership of the trestle was then transferred to the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail Association. [50]
Following an engineering survey by Bergmann Associates, of Albany, NY [52] – the same firm that inspected the Poughkeepsie Bridge prior to its conversion to a walkway [53] – the bridge was closed to the public in June 2010, for repairs. [54] Renovations were originally expected to cost $750,000, and begin in early 2011 with a 12-month completion time. The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation granted $150,000 toward the renovation. [55] By November 2010, an additional $300,000 had been raised from private donors and other sources. [56] By the end of 2010, over 10+1⁄2 short tons (9.5 t) of ties were removed from the Rosendale section of the rail trail. [57]
The surface of the walkway was rebuilt with a wood-plastic composite by a volunteer force. [58] On February 17, 2011, [59] a Bergmann Associates employee used the trestle as a case study in a seminar on adaptive reuse of defunct railroad bridges. [60] By late March, 2011, the estimated cost of renovating the trestle had risen to $1.1 million, [61] and the expected time to completion had increased to two years. [57]
A campaign to raise $500,000 for the renovation began on March 27, 2011; [57] by June 30, about $50,000 had been raised. [62] Two 2009 lawsuits brought by John E. Rahl against the New York Telephone Company over alleged fees due to him for a fiber optic line crossing the trestle were dismissed by two lower courts (in Vermont and New York). On November 18, 2011, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit dismissed Rahl's appeal. [63] Following July 2011, a lawsuit brought by John E. Rahl over the ownership of the trestle was also dismissed by the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Rahl had claimed that he retained ownership of the property because only the state, and not the county, had the right to seize the trestle, which was "forever railroad under 19th century eminent domain legal doctrines – long forgotten by modern jurisprudence". [62] The trestle has been the site of numerous picnics, barbecues and at least one wedding. [44]
In late June 2012, contractors began welding new railings to the trestle and conducting other preparatory work for opening the walkway. [64] An event at nearby Willow Kiln Park was held on June 29, 2013, to celebrate the grand-opening of the trestle to the public. [65] The trestle was fully re-opened to the public for the first time since the rail line closed, [66] and a 24-mile-long (39 km) segment of the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail from Gardiner to Kingston was opened. [67]
Ulster County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. It is situated along the Hudson River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 181,851. The county seat is Kingston. The county is named after the Irish province of Ulster. The county is part of the Hudson Valley region of the state.
Rosendale is a town in the center of Ulster County, New York, United States. It once contained a village Rosendale, primarily centered around Main Street, but which was dissolved through vote in 1977. The population was 5,782 at the 2020 census.
Rosendale is a hamlet located in the Town of Rosendale in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 1,285 at the 2020 census. It was also a census-designated place known as Rosendale Village until 2010, when the U.S. Census Bureau designated it Rosendale Hamlet. Some maps continue to list the place as just Rosendale. As of 2020, the "Hamlet" in the CDP name was dropped.
Cottekill is a small hamlet in the northwest part of the Town of Rosendale, Ulster County, New York, United States. Located in the Rondout Valley, it is approximately 2.25 miles east of the hamlet of Stone Ridge, 2.5 miles northwest of Rosendale Village, 8.75 miles south of the city of Kingston and 10.9 miles north of the village of New Paltz. As of 2014, the population was listed at 451.
The Ulster and Delaware Railroad (U&D) was a railroad located in the state of New York. It was often advertised as "The Only All-Rail Route to the Catskill Mountains." At its greatest extent, the U&D extended 107 miles (172 km) from Kingston Point on the Hudson River through the Catskill Mountains to its western terminus at Oneonta, passing through the counties of Ulster, Delaware, Schoharie and Otsego.
The Wallkill River, a tributary of the Hudson, drains Lake Mohawk in Sparta, New Jersey, flowing from there generally northeasterly 88.3 miles (142.1 km) to Rondout Creek in New York, just downstream of Sturgeon Pool, near Rosendale, with the combined flows reaching the Hudson at Kingston.
Rondout Creek is a 63.3-mile-long (101.9 km) tributary of the Hudson River in Ulster and Sullivan counties, New York, United States. It rises on Rocky Mountain in the eastern Catskills, flows south into Rondout Reservoir, part of New York City's water supply network, then into the valley between the Catskills and the Shawangunk Ridge, where it goes over High Falls and finally out to the Hudson at Kingston, receiving along the way the Wallkill River.
Perrine's Bridge is the second oldest covered bridge in the State of New York, after the Hyde Hall Bridge in East Springfield. Once located in the hamlet called Perrines Bridge between 1850 and 1861. It is located in the modern day town of Esopus-Rosendale, New York just a few hundred feet to the east of Interstate 87 crossing of the Wallkill River in Ulster County, New York. Originally built to aid in the movement of trade between the towns of Rifton and Rosendale, the bridge is about 90 miles north of New York city between mile markers 81 and 82 on the New York State Thruway. In May 1834 the State of New York authorized and provided money ($700) to Ulster county, NY, to build the bridge. In 1835, the bridge was built by Benjamin Wood, the one-lane wooden covered bridge has been closed to vehicular traffic since 1930. The Bridge derives its name from James W. Perrine, a descendant of Daniel Perrin "The Huguenot", who was a tavern keeper that opened an inn on the east side of that future bridge in 1820. Perrine's son was hired each winter as the "snower". He would spread snow the length of the structure so horse-drawn sleighs could cross.
New York State Route 213 (NY 213) is a state highway located entirely in Ulster County. It runs from the eastern Catskills to downtown Kingston.
The Wallkill Valley Railroad is a defunct railroad which once operated in Ulster and Orange counties in upstate New York. Its corridor was from Kingston in the north to Montgomery in the south, with a leased extension to Campbell Hall. It crossed both the Wallkill River and Rondout Creek.
The Wallkill Valley Rail Trail is a 23.7-mile (38.1 km) rail trail and linear park that runs along the former Wallkill Valley Railroad rail corridor in Ulster County, New York, United States. It stretches from Gardiner through New Paltz, Rosendale and Ulster to the Kingston city line, just south of a demolished, concrete Conrail railroad bridge that was located on a team-track siding several blocks south of the also-demolished Kingston New York Central Railroad passenger station. The trail is separated from the Walden–Wallkill Rail Trail by two state prisons in Shawangunk, though there have been plans to bypass these facilities and to connect the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail with other regional rail-trails. The northern section of the trail forms part of the Empire State Trail.
The Snyder Estate Natural Cement Historic District is located in the Town of Rosendale, New York, United States. It is a 275-acre (111 ha) tract roughly bounded by Rondout Creek, Binnewater and Cottekill roads and Sawdust Avenue. NY 213 runs through the lower portion of the district, paralleling the dry bed of the Delaware and Hudson Canal.
The Binnewater Historic District is a national historic district located at Rosendale in Ulster County, New York, United States. The district originally included nine contributing buildings built during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were all frame structures and included a railroad depot, a privy, a general store that was also a post office, a livery stable, two houses, a wagon shed, and two barns. The general store served as an unofficial railroad depot for the Wallkill Valley Railroad from 1875 until 1883, when the railroad constructed the actual station. The station was located too close to Binnewater Road, and was hit repeatedly by trucks. In May 1989, a large piece of the building broke off and fell into the street. The structure was subsequently demolished.
The Walden–Wallkill Rail Trail, also known as the Jesse McHugh Rail Trail, is a 3.22-mile (5.18 km) rail trail between the village of Walden, New York and the neighboring hamlet of Wallkill. The two communities are located in Orange and Ulster counties, respectively, in upstate New York.
Kingston is the only city in, and the county seat of, Ulster County, New York, United States. It is 91 miles (146 km) north of New York City and 59 miles (95 km) south of Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grouped with the New York metropolitan area around Manhattan by the United States Census Bureau. The population was 24,069 at the 2020 United States Census.
New Paltz is a village in Ulster County located in the U.S. state of New York. It is approximately 80 miles (130 km) north of New York City and 70 miles (110 km) south of Albany. The population was 7,324 at the 2020 census.
New Paltz is an incorporated U.S. town in Ulster County, New York. The population was 14,407 at the 2020 census. The town is located in the southeastern part of the county and is south of Kingston. New Paltz contains a village, also with the name New Paltz. The town is named for Palz, the dialect name of the Palatinate, called Pfalz in standard German.
The Hudson Valley Rail Trail is a paved 4-mile (6.4 km) east–west rail trail in the town of Lloyd in Ulster County, New York, stretching from the Hudson River through the hamlet of Highland. The trail was originally part of the Poughkeepsie Bridge Route, a rail corridor that crossed the Hudson via the Poughkeepsie Bridge. Controlled by a variety of railroads throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the bridge was damaged and became unusable after a May 8, 1974 fire. By the 1980s, the corridor's then-owner, Conrail, had routed all rail traffic in the region north through Selkirk Yard and was eager to relieve itself of the bridge and adjoining rights-of-way. In 1984, it sold the entire property for one dollar to a felon who did not maintain it or pay taxes on it. The section of the corridor west of the Hudson was seized by Ulster County in 1991 and transferred to the town of Lloyd.
New Paltz station is a former train station in the village of New Paltz in Ulster County, New York. The building was the first of two railroad stations constructed in the town of New Paltz, and it is the only former Wallkill Valley Railroad station standing at its original location.
Joppenbergh Mountain is a nearly 500-foot (152 m) mountain in Rosendale Village, a hamlet in the town of Rosendale, in Ulster County, New York. The mountain is composed of a carbonate bedrock overlain by glacially deposited material. It was named after Rosendale's founder, Jacob Rutsen, and mined throughout the late 19th century for dolomite that was used in the manufacture of natural cement. Extensive mining caused a large cave-in on December 19, 1899, that destroyed equipment and collapsed shafts within Joppenbergh. Though it was feared that several workers had been killed, the collapse happened while all the miners were outside, eating lunch. Since the collapse, the mountain has experienced shaking and periodic rockfalls.