DH - Hadley Bridge (Old)

I found some great info and pictures of the Hadley Bridge (Builder: Patrick J. Delay from D&H Railway) from before the 1943 replacement:

http://www.brasshistory.net/Website%20RR/bHa.html - this even has the scale drawings

http://www.brasshistory.net/Website%20RR/bharr1895.html

http://www.brasshistory.net/Website%20RR/bHa20.html

In 1865, the Adirondack Railway reached Hadley bringing tourism and transporting paper, woodenware products, timber, and leather from the mills. The railroad trestle bridge (above) over the Sacandaga River is adjacent to the Bow Bridge (used to be a covered bridge).

Source: http://reny.net/Capital-Region-NY-Areas/Hadley-New-York-Real...

The trains brought well-known people to Hadley and Luzerne to spend their summer vacations. Stagecoaches, and later automobiles, met the trains to take guests to the hotels and boarding houses, which provided employment for area residents. Freight cars served the woodenware factory adjacent to the depot, the paper mill and a grist mill. The 518-foot long railroad trestle bridge over the Sacandaga River is adjacent to the Bow Bridge, which is on the National Register. The Bow Bridge in 1885 replaced the burned 1813 historical covered bridge.

Source: https://firstwilderness.com/things-to-do/communities/hadleyl...

THE DAILY SARATOGIAN, THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1907

HAVE SHIFTED GEYSERS

BROOK TO ANOTHER BED

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Difficult task for Workman at

Formel Property

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BUILDING TROLLEY CULVERT

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Work Preparatory to Connecting Tracks on New Saratoga-Schenectady

Line-Many Visitors

The preparatory work for connecting the trolley tracks of the Delaware & Hudson on the Formel property, south of the village is going on rapidly. The building of an addition to the culvert over the Geyser’s Brook was the most difficult part of the undertaking. That part of the work is in charge of Patrick Delay, master mason for the Delaware & Hudson, and the foundation work is about completed. Soon the arch will spring into shape, when the filling into a level with the present tracks will be comparatively easy.

Many visitors have been attracted to the spot since the work started, and most of them wondered how Mr. Delay would get that swift running stream out of his way while building the culvert. A solid foundation for the south side of the culvert was secured by blasting into a ledge of slate rock which rises abruptly on that side of the stream. To secure an equally good foundation on the north side necessitated forcing the brook out of its natural channel and running it into a new one. This was accomplished by a sluiceway, built of stout plank and boards, about eight feed wide, three feet deep and a hundred feet long.

One end of the sluiceway was run a short distance into the eastern end of the old culvert, the water forced into it, this artificial channel, carrying the stream completely out of the workmen’s way, and discharging it about a hundred feet further down stream.

Recent rains have largely increased the volume of water, which rushed down the new wooden bed with an angry roar, as if resenting the liberties which Mr. Delay had taken with it, forming a foaming cataract, as it tumbled into its old channel and hurries on to join the Kayderossaras, about half a mile distant.