Eastern Railroad Discussion > CSX Hudson Valley..the view from the Mid-Hudson Bridge.

I decided to do some more exploring up in the Highland-Poughkeepsie, NY area today.

I arrived at the parking area for the new Highland-Poughkeepsie walkway and then decided on an itinerary.

I had done some shooting from the new walkway, but had not done any as of yet from the adjacent Mid-Hudson road bridge, which carries Rte 44/55 across the Hudson between Highland and Poughkeepsie.

I picked up a flyer at the walkway entrance which described a 3 mile loop, across the walkway to Poughkeepsie, then on local streets in Poughkeepsie over to the Mid Hudson Bridge and back across to the car in Highland....

Several spots along the sidewalk on the Mid-Hudson Bridge offer vantagepoints of the CSX Riverline, with the former Highland-Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge as a photoprop...with pedestrians on the walkway viewing from above...

Some pics of a Southbound Riverline freight rolling through Highland, NY this afternoon...Dave Williams



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/09 16:52 by dwi189.

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And a few more pics of the Southbound manifest...Dave W.

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A tug guides a barge between the piers of the former Railroad bridge...Dave W.

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and a 'reflections' pic...as the Poughkeepsie-Highland walkway bridge casts a reflection in the river below.....it would have made for a nice sight and shot had it been back prior to 1974 a train been running across that bridge with that same lighting....Dave W.

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And a view from the sidewalk of the Mid Hudson Bridge looking West toward Highland.....wider platforms are placed near the bridge towers, aloowing room to set up a tripod without interfering with passing pedestrians....Only the North sidewalk was open, the South sidewalk was closed for construction...Dave W.

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And a bit earlier, I came across some historical info related to the Poughkeepsie walkway....including some pics of the infamous 1974 Penn-Central tie fire...as seen at the East entrance to the walkway...Dave W.

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And a couple more informational pics palced along the walkway...Dave W.

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And finally...a bit earlier...looking toward the Mid-Hudson Bridge from the walkway...with Beacon Mountain and Breakneck Ridge..the Northern extent of my mountaintop overlook hiking routines, seen 15 miles to the South....

Overall, a decent 'scope-out' session today, which will allow for a future all-day railfanning itinerary in the Highland-Poughkeepsie area for me.....Dave Williams



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/09 16:50 by dwi189.

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I want to take my high school rowing team here and race a NY team on that perfect river--look at that flat water!! I just may look into that as a future trip...do some "secret" railfanning on the side...

Coach Wrote:
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> I want to take my high school rowing team here and
> race a NY team on that perfect river--look at that
> flat water!!

Heh. Just watch out for the oil barges -- and the fresh breezes that come up on summer afternoons and churn things up in that fjord!

The nice looking brownish dwelling in several of the pics looks as though it affords good views of train and barge activity for it 's owner, assuming their interested. Their driveway looks like it would be dicey in winter though.

One story has it that the Superintendent for L&HR called his Dispatcher to check on how rail operations were going one particular night and was told "Except that the Poughkeepsie Bridge is burning, everything is fine".

trainmaster3 Wrote:
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> The nice looking brownish dwelling in several of
> the pics looks as though it affords good views of
> train and barge activity for it 's owner, assuming
> their interested. Their driveway looks like it
> would be dicey in winter though.
>
> One story has it that the Superintendent for L&HR
> called his Dispatcher to check on how rail
> operations were going one particular night and was
> told "Except that the Poughkeepsie Bridge is
> burning, everything is fine".


The owner of that brown house must have had strangers using their driveway uninvited in the past, as a gate and posted signs have been installed at driveway's end.....Dave W.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/09 05:03 by dwi189.

As part of the start-up of Conrail the L&HR had a protective traffic agreement that Conrail had to route a minimum amount of bridge traffic, no pun intended, from their ex-CNJ interchange in Phillipsburg NJ to be delivered to Maybrook Yard in New York for forwarding by Conrail (ex-New Haven)into New England. With the bridge burning statement it doomed the L&HR as they had very little if any local traffic by that time. It was subsequently rolled into Conrail and much of it abandoned although NYS&W picked up a portion of the mainline. It remains part of the Suzie's through route today. To pick nits I believe it was a returning northbound train crew who called their dispatcher to receive the doomsday message.Dave, Thanks for all the photos and info. Another bit of trivia, the bridge was actually part of the original planned route of the Lehigh and New England's proposed New England to Harrisburg, PA South Mountain Railroad. That didn't happen and L&NE only ever got Maybrook interchanging traffic to the New Haven and as far south as Slatington, PA.
Gonut

Dave,

What's the fastest way to Highland from the Bear Mountain Circle? Up Route 9W, or cross the Bear Mtn Bridge, and take the regular Route 9? And how long does it realistically take?

I wanted to get up there after seeing your original set of shots, but when I visited Bear Mountain two weeks ago, I left Philly a little too late, and decided to instead of rushing around, to stay put down there.

Eugene

For a view of that bridge with a train on it, c. 1952, note the banner on this site:

http://www.godfatherrails.com

chico
http://www.heartlandrails.com

I haven't tried Rte 9 yet....but 9W North from Bear Mountain is about 40-45 minutes.....NY thruway to Rte299 EAst to 9W South to Haviland AVe will get you there also but will add 10 miles each way as it is less direct of a route from the South but avoids traffic lights in Newburgh....Dave WilliamsChS7-321 Wrote:
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> Dave,
>
> What's the fastest way to Highland from the Bear
> Mountain Circle? Up Route 9W, or cross the Bear
> Mtn Bridge, and take the regular Route 9? And how
> long does it realistically take?
>
> I wanted to get up there after seeing your
> original set of shots, but when I visited Bear
> Mountain two weeks ago, I left Philly a little too
> late, and decided to instead of rushing around, to
> stay put down there.
>
> Eugene

dwi189 Wrote:
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> I haven't tried Rte 9 yet....but 9W North from
> Bear Mountain is about 40-45 minutes.....NY
> thruway to Rte299 EAst to 9W South to Haviland AVe
> will get you there also but will add 10 miles each
> way as it is less direct of a route from the South
> but avoids traffic lights in Newburgh....Dave

And US-9 goes wayyyy inland north of Peekskill, so you'd likely be using NY-9D between the Bear Mountain Bridge and at least Beacon. So I'd definitely recommend staying on US-9W if you have no other reason to go up the east side of the river.

Railfan magazine had a big story on L&HR in the '70's. The quote mentioned above may have come from that article. If anyone is interested in the Conrail merger era in NY/NJ, back issues of Railfan, published by Carstens, are worth digging up, as alot of this was right in their backyard. They had great coverage of LV, D&H, and L&HR in the pre- and post-Conrail era.

Dave, thanks for the history lesson on this bridge.

Next time I head up, I'll try an East shore routing to compare mileage and timing...

From my house to Highland via the Palisades Parkway North to 9W at Bear Mountain and then 9W from there to Highland is about 55 miles..and takes about an hour and 10 minutes or so...depending on how heavy traffic is, especially from downtown Newburgh on North.

9W is primarily 4 lane from Bear Mountain to Newburgh, though you have to climb up and over Storm King Mountain...

From Newburgh on North to Highland, 9W is mostly 2 lane with occasional truck lanes to allow for passing on the grades...

Doing it during rush hour will bog you down between Newburgh and Highland in spots due to traffic lights.

I took the NY Thruway route yesterday which was about 65 miles and took me the same amount of time as the 55 mile 9W method...an hour and 10 minutes as I could make better time on the interstate, but the Thruway heads West to Suffern before turning North...and then after exiting at Exit 18 onto Rte 299 East, it was another several miles back East to 9W at Highland, which also added extra mileage to the trip, but I wasn't in the mood to deal with all the traffic lights and 2 lane stretches on 9W yesterday, so I chose the longer route ....Dave W.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/09 15:39 by dwi189.