BURNED AND SCORCHED, BUT STILL STANDING. If you've been a Railpictures viewer for a while, you may recall my shot of a couple of teenagers making out on an abandoned train trestle. This is the trestle upon which those teens were sitting. I waited for a perfect autumn day to capture this view from river level below the grade. The bridge was abandoned by the Boston & Maine in 1973, and it caught fire in 1980. The entire scene still smells of charred wood, and it's a bit of a shock that the bridge is even still standing given the extent of the damage. Each of the timbers is heavily pitted and scorched. This bridge has two nicknames. It is sometimes called the "sulphite bridge" because the railroad which crossed it carried chemicals to nearby paper mills. It is also sometimes called the "upside-down covered bridge" because the structure was once completely enclosed by an exterior wooden sheath. (I personally find the latter description to be somewhat odd, because the internal trusswork is very different from that of a traditional covered bridge.) Here are two links to images of the bridge when the line was active, before the fire: link 1, link 2. The right-of-way is now a bike path, but the path detours around the site of this heavily-damaged structure. N.B. — The bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The record number is 75000130.
This album seeks to portray classic New England and Upstate New York imagery. It showcases the most perfect examples of regional identity, with special attention to structures and landscape.
