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Lehigh Valley Trail - Wadsworth Junction Bridge

Monroe County, New York, and Livingston County, New York

Photos 

Wadsworth Junction Bridge

Facing east, the bridge crosses the Genesee River at the location known as Wadsworth Junction, where the Lehigh Valley RR and Pennsylvania RR crossed. If you examine the photo carefully, you might wonder where the trains actually travelled, given the diagonal metalwork above the modern trail. The trains traveled across the top of the bridge!

Photo taken by Paige Miller in October 2004

Enlarge

BH Photo #249410

Map 

Description 

The Lehigh Valley Railroad built this bridge over the Genesee River in 1891, giving them a connection from New York City (actually Newark, NJ) to Buffalo, NY. The bridge was closed to railroad traffic in 1976, and the rails were removed shortly thereafter. Now this bridge, and all of the Lehigh Valley railroad right-of-way in Monroe County, is a part of the Lehigh Valley Trail.

Wadsworth Junction is the name of the junction where the Lehigh Valley Rairoad crossed over the Pennsylvania Railroad. This bridge carried the Lehigh Valley RR not only over the Genesee River but also over the Pennsylvania RR. A very long trestle on the east side of the river, and a shorter trestle on the west side of the river, carried the Lehigh Valley RR above the river valley; stone supports of this long trestle remain today.

The railroad deck on this bridge has been removed, and this bridge now carries pedestrian traffic only on a timber deck laid through the trusses. Notably, the original deck was positioned slightly below the top chord of the trusses, making this technically both a deck truss and a pony truss.

Facts 

Overview
Warren deck truss bridge over Genesee River on Lehigh Valley Railroad
Location
Monroe County, New York, and Livingston County, New York
Status
Open to pedestrians only
History
Built 1917-8 by the Bethlehem Steel Co. to replace an 1891 bridge
Builder
- Bethlehem Steel Co. of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Railroad
- Lehigh Valley Railroad (LV)
Design
One riveted, 10-panel Warren deck truss with all verticals, 225'
22 deck plate girder spans, 10 of 60', 2 of 64', 10 of 30'
One through plate girder span over PRR, 58.4'
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 225.0 ft.
Total length: 1,311.0 ft.
Also called
LV - Genesee River Bridge
Lehigh Valley Trail - Genesee River Bridge
Approximate latitude, longitude
+42.98443, -77.73175   (decimal degrees)
42°59'04" N, 77°43'54" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
18/277277/4762707 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Rush
Inventory number
BH 55610 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

10-panel truss (312)
Bethlehem Steel Co. (165)
Built 1918 (512)
Built during 1910s (10,235)
Deck truss (2,049)
Genesee River (78)
Lehigh Valley Railroad (163)
Livingston County, New York (115)
Monroe County, New York (193)
New York (5,241)
Open to pedestrians (4,692)
 Owned by county (21,997)
Preserved (1,246)
Rail-to-trail (1,677)
Railroad (16,990)
Riveted (2,776)
Span length 175-250 feet (2,125)
Total length 1000-2500 feet (2,049)
Truss (38,309)
Warren deck truss (691)
Warren deck truss with all verticals (127)
Warren truss (7,181)

Update Log 

  • November 1, 2022: New photo from Paul Plassman
  • September 13, 2022: New photo from Paul Plassman
  • August 22, 2022: Updated by Paul Plassman: Added note to description
  • August 20, 2022: Updated by Paul Plassman: Corrected build date, added builder, dimensions, &categories "10-panel truss", "Riveted", "Railroad"
  • June 8, 2020: New photo from Geoff Hubbs
  • February 23, 2013: Updated by Paige Miller: grammatical correction
  • February 21, 2013: Updated by Luke Harden: Added type & Categories.
  • February 21, 2013: Added by Paige Miller

Related Bridges 

Sources 

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Comments 

Lehigh Valley Trail - Wadsworth Junction Bridge
Posted July 17, 2022, by JIM STEWART (JAMESEMSTEWART57 [at] GMAIL [dot] COM)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSqB5SY9Ix0

HOPEFULLY THIS WILL GET YOU TO A VIDEO OF THE BRIDGE. THIS IS AN EXCELLENT VIEW OF THE SITE FROM ALL ANGLES. KUDOS TO THE CREATOR OF THIS WORK. THE LV WAS BUILT FROM GENEVA TO BUFFALO IN 1891-2. A TWO SPAN BRIDGE WITH A PIER IN THE RIVER WAS BUILT THEN. IT WAS REPLACED BY THE BRIDGE THAT STILL EXISTS. I CANNOT PROVIDE THE DATE. 1896 SEEMS POSSIBLE, BUT A LIFE OF 4 OR 5 YEARS FOR THE FIRST BRIDGE SEEMS EXTREME.

THE ONE WISH I HAVE WOULD BE TO SEE A VIDEO LIKE THIS TAKEN BEFORE THE LONG APPROACH TRESTLE WAS REMOVED.

Lehigh Valley Trail - Wadsworth Junction Bridge
Posted July 16, 2022, by JIM STEWART (JAMESEMSTEWART57 [at] GMAIL [dot] COM)

THIS BRIDGE IS IN THE TOWN OF RUSH, MONROE COUNTY, ON THE EAST END, AND THE TOWN OF CALEDONIA, LIVINGSTON COUNTY, ON THE WEST END. SOMEBODY PLEASE DELETE "GENESEE COUNTY" AND ADD LIVINGSTON COUNTY.

Wadsworth Junction Bridge
Posted February 22, 2013, by Robert Thompson (rkt [dot] engineering [at] gmail [dot] com)

re: pedestrian walkway

If there were still trains running over the top of the structure, there would be serious worries. But the bridge is massively over-built for the service it sees now.

Wadsworth Junction Bridge
Posted February 21, 2013, by Tony Dillon (spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com)

Fascinating...They removed a leg of the bracing in each panel to allow for a pedestrian walkway to be installed. Never seen anything quite like this!