Picture a crusty hill farmer giving directions to bewildered and bemused city folk. They've pulled into his yard in one of those new-fangled auto-mobiles and they're lost.
How it once was. Now, with the drop of a credit card you can spew carbon and spread virus's around the world. Traveling in ease and comfort has become an unalienable right. But that wasn't always the case. Washington County is hill country and if you've got hills you've got valleys. Every one of those valleys has a stream running thru it and those streams were serious obstacles to travel for those who came before us. Especially as travel evolved from foot to horse and buggy to train and, finally, to cars and trucks.
With the help of asphalt, concrete and steel we now zip over whatever obstacles nature puts before us. But scattered across the landscape are relics of earlier efforts to 'get from here to there'. I call them 'ghost bridges' and this post shares a few I've come across. No doubt there are others.
Hudson Crossing is a good place to start. Shale rock fords and boat ferries were probably the earliest means of getting from one side of the river to the other, but eventually bridges were built. Support piers of two rail bridges that once connected the Thompson/Clarks Mills vicinity of Washington County to Northumberland in Saratoga County are still visible. The downstream stone piers carried an electric trolley from the late 1800's. The cement piers just upstream were first put in service on August 5, 1903 by the Greenwich & Johnsonville Railway. Eventually they accommodated both the steam rail and electric trolley.
This defunct rail trestle spans the Battenkill between the Country Club golf course and the site of the former Stevens and Thompson mill. When it was built in 1901 old piers were discovered that may have been put in place by Colonel Baum in 1777.
Another old rail bridge over the 'Kill between Greenwich Village and Middle Falls at Cement Mountain.
You can see these piers from an access path off Elbow Street in the Village of Greenwich. They carried the train over the river on its way south to Johnsonville.
Here's a familiar sight to anyone traveling from Greenwich to Cambridge. A plaque on the trestle reads '1907 Greenwich and Johnsonville Railway'. The low Rt. 372 overpass (just off the left side of the photo) has been the site of several crunching accidents with trucks carrying high loads. The line followed the Battenkill towards Salem. Many think it would make a great rail trail.
This old post card shows the trolley line bridge over the gorge below Dionondahowa Falls. The site is located off Windy Hill Road near the fairgrounds.
More stone piers in the Battenkill at Clarks Mills. I believe these carried the trolley line.
As the trolley line chugged its way north from Thompson it crossed Van Antwerp Creek on this abutment. It's located in the Denton Preserve off Rt. 4 but I can't recommend visiting it. I had to fight my way thru nettles and a honeysuckle jungle guarded by blood thirsty mosquitos to get the photos.
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