Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge - Poughkeepsie, NY
Posted by: 
Vermontish
N 41° 42.633 W 073° 56.274
18T E 588358 N 4618184
Historic railroad bridge, now a New York State Historic Park
Waymark Code: WM4HZA
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 08/28/2008
Views: 60
At 6,767 feet, this bridge was the longest in the world when it opened in 1888. For eighty-six years, it provided the east-west rail route connecting New England to the rest of the country: trains could easily cross the Hudson River 212 feet above the water, instead of being barged from Manhattan to Jersey City. See this article from Scientific American (February 5, 1887).
The bridge figured prominently in the conduct of two World Wars, transporting troops and materiel from the west and south to eastern ports for departure to Europe.
The river is under 2,500 feet wide at this point; the rest of the bridge's length is in the elevated approaches, mostly on the Poughkeepsie (east) side. There's a short video history here.
With railroads in decline, the bridge was abandoned when fire damaged it in 1974. Since 1995, money has been raised and support mustered to convert the bridge into a unique linear park, Walkway Over the Hudson, connecting rail trails on both sides of the river. On October 3, 2009, the bridge was officially opened as New York's newest State Historic Park and, at 1.28 miles, the longest elevated footbridge in the world.
Parking is plentiful: The bridge is visible from numerous points in Poughkeepsie (3,900 feet of the elevated approach are over the city), as well as locations up and down the river. My coordinates are directly under the bridge on North Water Street; photos are from Waryas riverfront park in Poughkeepsie (N 41° 42.337 W 73° 56.411) and Johnson-Iorio park in Highland (N 41° 42.294 W 73° 57.084).