Rosendale Trestle
The Rosendale Trestle is a 940-foot continuous truss bridge and former railroad trestle in Rosendale Village, a hamlet in the town of Rosendale in Ulster County, New York. Originally constructed by the Wallkill Valley Railroad to continue its rail line from New Paltz to Kingston, the bridge rises 150 ft above Rondout Creek, spanning both Route 213 and the former Delaware and Hudson Canal. When it opened to rail traffic on April 6, 1872, it was the highest span bridge in the United States.
About Rosendale Trestle in brief
The Rosendale Trestle is a 940-foot continuous truss bridge and former railroad trestle in Rosendale Village, a hamlet in the town of Rosendale in Ulster County, New York. Originally constructed by the Wallkill Valley Railroad to continue its rail line from New Paltz to Kingston, the bridge rises 150 ft above Rondout Creek, spanning both Route 213 and the former Delaware and Hudson Canal. When it opened to rail traffic on April 6, 1872, it was the highest span bridge in the United States. It was rebuilt in 1895 by the King Bridge Company to address public concerns regarding its stability, and it has been repeatedly reinforced throughout its existence. The bridge was seized by the county in 2009 for tax nonpayment, and renovated as a pedestrian walkway for theWallkill Valley Rail Trail. It opened to the public with a celebration on June 29, 2013. It cost USD 250,000 to build, and followed a Post truss design. Roughly 1,000 short tons of iron and 420,000 board feet of timber went into its construction. At the time of its completion in January 1872,. it had the high span of any bridge inthe United States, and was remarkable for its time, and can be considered the “most awesome part” of the Wall Kill Valley rail line.
It is located on the site of the former Rosendale Canal, which is now a New York State Route 213 bypass. In 1888, the town received a permit to use some of its property by the railroad to temporarily repair the bridge. That same year, the railroad allowed the bridge to temporarily use some bents by the Rond out Creek for water damage repairs. The repairs did not interfere with traffic along the underlying highway, and the bridge is still in use today. It has a deck and railings all the way across thetrestle, and access is from a parking lot about 1⁄4 mile north on Binnewater Road, about 1 ⁄4 miles north of the town’s main road. The deck andrailings now continue all theway across the trestel, and Access is from the parking lot on Bin newater Road. The rail line was opened north to Rosendale on May 13, 1869 to finance its portion of the railroad. In 1871, the Springtown bridge was completed by 1871. It allowed the rail line to continue north to Kingston. By this time, trains were running regularly to Kingston and from the Kingston Union Station.
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This page is based on the article Rosendale Trestle published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 02, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
