Highland Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge

The development of the Highland Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge and the transformation from trains to a Hudson Valley staple

On track to hit 600,000 visitors by the end of the year, Walkway Over the Hudson has brought vitality to the Hudson Valley by repurposing an old railroad track. 

Spanning nearly a mile and a half across the Hudson river, Walkway Over the Hudson is one of the longest pedestrian walking bridges in the world reaching 212 feet off the ground.. 

Opening on Oct. 3, 2009, the state park boasted 25,000 visitors in a single day, crushing expectations. With an expected 200,000 visitors during the first year, the bridge saw nearly 400,000 visitors in the first three months.

WHAT IS IT?

A major question surrounding the Walkway is what exactly is it. Geoff Brault, Director of Marketing and Communications for Walkway Over the Hudson, broke down the bridge into three major entities to better understand how the organization works in association with state services.

“It is a New York State park, which means that the park system is responsible for all of the operations of the facility,” Brault said. “The New York State Bridge Authority has all the responsibility for keeping the walkway in the sky.”

These state services account for a major aspect of longevity of the bridge in the maintenance and security aspects. These services are funded by taxpayer dollars and do basic regulation and safety protocols for the park. 

“The third entity, called Walkway Over the Hudson that is a not for profit agency. What we [Walkway Over the Hudson] are essentially is a friends group, our mission is to steward the park in the community,” Brault said. 

Walkway Over the Hudson is essential to community integration that has been identified in the Poughkeepsie and Hudson Valley community. The responsibilities for the not for profit organization is to fundraise, host special events and coordinate with state organization

While the success has been sky high, the bridge has centuries of history and major milestones before it came the pedestrian walkway. Seeing tragedy, world wars and years of stagnation, Walkway Over the Hudson has brought new life into the Hudson Valley since the bridges opening in 1889. 

HISTORY

At the time of opening, the bridge was known as the Poughkeepsie Highland Railroad Bridge. “At the time the longest bridge in the world,” Brault said thinking back on the milestone that lasted mere months. 

The reason for construction was due to the influx of travel by rail, development in the Midwest and necessity by major steel manufacturers like the Rockefellers. “They needed ways to get their products from the industrial northeast to the midwest as cheaply and easily as possible,” Brault said.

The actual design and height of the bridge was out of necessity for the technology in the late 19th century. “There were still ships with masts, so it was built 212 feet so that the masts of ships and steamships could sail underneath,” Brault said.

The traffic across the bridge began to slow down following the end of World War II as the infrastructure of the country began to improve. However during World War II the bridge saw a lot of movement. 

“When troop trains would cross during World War II, they would stop the train at the part that’s over Poughkeepsie and the soldiers would throw their addresses down to women that would gather on the street and they would get penpals,” Brault recounted. 

After nearly a century of being an active bridge, a fire broke out on May 8, 1974 destroying nearly 700 feet of track, leaving the bridge beyond repair by state resources. 

At the time of the fire, the amount of travel across the bridge was at a low, causing the fire to be a breaking point. “That’s what knocked the bridge out of service, the last train crossed on May 8th, 1974,” Brault said. “The bridge wasn’t really necessary anymore.” 

It wasn’t until the mid 1990’s that a vision for restoration of the bridge began with Bill Sepe, Fred Schaeffer and a group of locals who saw a future for it. 

“We can do something with this,” Brault said about the initiative Sepe and Schaeffer set forth.

TWO MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS

Schaeffer, Sepe and the community attempted to garner support to help gain momentum in their cause to restore the bridge.

Schaeffer used to lead unofficial tours of the bridge to gain support and awareness. “One of those people that he did that with was a name very familiar around these parts, Rob Dyson,” Brault said.

Dyson fell in love with the view and from that moment the first major backing of the project had been achieved. The Dyson Foundation donated $20 million to complete the project and an addition $2.3 to build the elevator in 2014. 

His donation through the Dyson Foundation was put into answering vital questions and performing necessary studies on the stability and longevity of the bridge. 

“It cost 38 million dollars and change to retrofit the walkway, to turn the old Poughkeepsie Railroad bridge into the Walkway. That includes all the engineering studies, all the laying of the panels and all that,” Brault said.

The project was financed through three major ways, the Dyson Foundation, state and federal grant money, and community fundraising. The way the project was funded and built is a microcosm of the current integration of community and governmental support. 

The final push to complete the project came from the government. “A big accelerant came around 2006, 2007 when New York State was putting together plans to celebrate the quadricentennial of Henry Hudson first trip down the Hudson river,” Brault said.

Walkway Over the Hudson has inspired change in the community and helped promote economic and social growth in the Poughkeepsie area. However, most people only know the bridge for what it is today, but the history of the structure holds decades of Hudson Valley history that needs to be explored further.