WKVY - Rosendale Trestle (1872)
Description
Though the trestle was difficult to build, and viewed as weak by modern standards, it was remarkable for its time, and can be considered the "most awesome part" of the Wallkill Valley rail line. Construction on the bridge's abutments began in August 1870 by A. L. Dolby & Company, but work on the superstructure by the Watson Manufacturing Company did not begin until the following year due to problems with quicksand during the excavation. Sections of the superstructure were built in Paterson, New Jersey. The bridge originally had seven wrought-iron spans and two shorter wooden spans; the longer spans were each 105 feet (32 m) in length. The bridge cost $250,000 to build, and followed a Post truss design. 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. Due to its height, it could "scarcely be crossed for the first time without something like a feeling of terror". The bridge allowed the rail line to continue north to Kingston.The bridge was opened on April 6, 1872 in a ceremony attended by 5,000 people, 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". 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.
A. L. Dolby & Company was contracted to complete the rail line between the bridge and Kingston. The track reached the Kingston Union Station in November 1872. By this time, trains were running regularly to and from Kingston.
By 1885, the bridge supports were reinforced and the track was converted from broad gauge to standard gauge. 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. The waterway beneath the trestle could be quite treacherous; so many people drowned that the area became known as "Dead Man's Stretch". There have been reports of ghostly "apparitions" in the area, particularly of a white dog.
The bridge, while remaining in use, was rebuilt by the King Bridge Company between 1895 and 1896; the trestle is the only railroad bridge featured in the King Bridge Company catalogs of the 1880s and 1890s that remains standing. The renovation converted the bridge's structure from iron and wood to steel to allay public concerns about its strength; the height of the bridge evoked collapses such as the Tay Bridge disaster. The steel was provided by the Carnegie Steel Company. The renovation raised the bridge's piers by 8 feet (2.4 m) and made the bridge straighter; the original design had a curve on the southern terminus. One of the northern spans was completed by February 1896, and the entire reconstruction was finished by June. The layout of the spans was unchanged from the original 1872 design. 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, though it was shaken by a nearby boiler explosion that occurred days before the collapse.
Facts
- Overview
- Lost Deck truss bridge over Rondout Creek on Wallkill Valley Railroad
- Location
- Rosendale, Ulster County, New York
- Status
- Replaced by new bridge
- History
- Built 1870-72, replaced in 1895
- Builders
- - A. L. Dolby & Co. (abutments)
- Carnegie Steel Co. of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Iron/Steel Manufacturer)
- Watson Manufacturing Co. of Paterson, New Jersey (superstructure)
- Railroad
- - Wallkill Valley Railroad (WKVY)
- Design
- Post Deck Truss
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 105.0 ft.
Total length: 940.0 ft.
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +41.84328, -74.08837 (decimal degrees)
41°50'36" N, 74°05'18" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 18/575684/4632777 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Rosendale
- Inventory number
- BH 49748 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Related Bridges
- Wallkill Valley Rail Trail - Rosendale Trestle (Successor)
Comments
Post a comment hereThis page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/ny/ulster/bh49748/