Town's Hero - Seneca Falls, New York - Citizen Memorials on Waymarking.com

This plaque commemorating a town's hero is located on the south end of the famous truss bridge located in the town of Seneca Falls, Seneca County, New York, USA.

The plaque reads:

HERE
APRIL 12, 1917
ANTONIO VARACALLI
GVE HIS LIFE
TO SAVE ANOTHER.
HE HONORED THE COMMUNITY,
THE COMMUNITY HONORS HIM.

This famous bridge known as the Bridge Street Bridge and located in Seneca Falls, is a minor waterways truss bridge on the New York State Canal System (Cayuga - Seneca Canal, Main Line) between Seneca Lake Entrance (Junction of the Cayuga - Seneca Canal with Seneca Lake at Geneva) (9 miles and 3300 feet and 1 lock to the west) and Erie - Cayuga-Seneca East Junction (Junction of the Erie and Cayuga-Seneca Canals) (10 miles and 2640 feet and 3 locks to the northeast).

The town of Seneca Falls is located in Seneca County. The east town line lies against Cayuga Lake with the town of Waterloo to the west. Seneca Falls is the birth place of the woman’s right movement, but also thought to be the inspiration for the fictional village of Bedford Falls in Frank Capra’s holiday classic movie “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

In the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey is deeply troubled. Prayers for his well-being from friends and family reach Heaven. Clarence Odbody, Angel Second Class, is assigned to visit Earth to save George. Convinced he's “worth more dead than alive” because of a life insurance policy, George contemplates suicide from a steel trestle bridge. Before he can leap, Clarence jumps in first and pretends to be drowning. After George rescues him, Clarence reveals himself to be George’s guardian angel. Clarence shows George what the town would have been like without him.

While Mr. Capra never acknowledged that Seneca Falls is the Real Bedford Falls, the similarities are hard to deny. Mr. Capra set Bedford Falls in New York State. Rochester, Buffalo, and Elmira are all mentioned in the movie and referenced as being fairly close. All three of these locations are an easy drive from Seneca Falls. Physical similarities between Seneca Falls and Bedford Falls are striking. The architecture along the main street and the steel truss bridge are only a couple of the similarities, Seneca Falls has many Victorian homes (like the large house George and Mary owned in the movie). The Erie Canal runs through Seneca Falls, Bedford Falls also has a canal. In 1945, when the movie was produced, Seneca Falls was a mill town, just like Bedford Falls.

Source: Jennifer Morrisey: Seneca Falls: George Bailey’s (It’s a Wonderful Life) Bridge, Internet

Website with more information on either the memorial or the person(s) it is dedicated to: [Web Link] Location: Bridge Street Bridge, Senaca Falls, New York

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