Walkway Over the Hudson - Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge

[Noel Weaver]

Although it looks as if this is a marina, it is not. This establishment is a restaurant and is known as Mariner's Harbor. If you look to the north (above) the restaurant, you will see what is to be a public park with an eventual public launching area for boats. There used to be oil tanks there, but now gone for the park. Hope this helps...

Not only is it a restaurant but a very good one and a great place for lunch and/or supper and to watch trains on both sides of
the river at the same time. You get a warning on the River Line when the gates go down and they whistle for the crossings
and on the other side you can always bring a Metro-North and Amtrak timetable with you.
When I visit this location next month, I will try to have lunch or supper here again.
Noel Weaver

[SST]

Well, whether I launch there or not, I"ll try and make a stop for lunch. It really looks like a great location.

Thanks for the info.

[sd80mac]

Well, whether I launch there or not, I"ll try and make a stop for lunch. It really looks like a great location.

Thanks for the info.

If you want to launch your boat, there is a marina with launch not far north from this spot (I think so). It also have a tunnel, that csx goes thru, right by the marina. I cant remember the town or location's name. I'll look up the google map and get back to this.

so u kill 2 birds with a stone...launch at that place and ride down the river to the restaurant...

[nysw3636]

Mariner's Harbor will be open until November 30, 2009. Then closed for winter...

[SST]

It'll have to wait until next year. My boat is in for winterizing and then heads for storage. After looking at the location here and measuring the distance, I will probably launch further south. It is approximately 90 miles to NYC. At economy cruise of 30mph it would take me 6 hours to get there and back not including any stops along the way. Even though the boat can operate at that setting for 15+ hours without fueling, I may shorten the route.

[alsorailfan]

Sent this link to to a few area rail fan friends and got an interesting reply from one of them. Makes me wonder what other form of arson/conspiracy stories are still floating around out there. At least the Walkway Over Hudson website sort of dispel some of the myths.

" I always thought that was an "insurance fire"... Penn Central certainly
didn't want the old New Haven Maybrook connection to remain viable with
competing rails at that end. They wanted the mainline haul to go NYC-B&A into New
England."

chris

[shadyjay]

On my way back from a weekend in NYC, I took the Hudson up to Poughkeepsie to check out the Walkway. The weather cooperated, and I got some great shots on the way up the Hudson. I printed out a map at home and took it with me to find my way from station to bridge. For those that don't have a map, however, there are small guide signs pointing the way. It was a good walk - about 15-20 mins or so. Entrance to the bridge featured a few landmarks left over from NHRR days including a couple ABS signals and some telgraph poles in the woods still up. Once out on the bridge... wow! Great job. Beautiful views! It is definetly one long bridge and when I was over to the Highland side, I turned around and headed back. Didn't see any freights on the West Shore Line but got a lot of great shots from the walkway itself of the river, the Mid Hudson Bridge, and the scenery around Poughkeepsie and Highland.

And oh yeah... a good amount of people were utilizing the bridge... some on bikes, some families, casual visitors, dogs being walked, etc. All looked like they were enjoying themselves, after being cooped up inside due to Nor'easters and really chilly weather for the past 3-4 days. The fall foliage was stunning in the area and I could think of no better viewing than from the bridge!

I read on the website that shuttle service is going to run from the train station to the bridge on weekends. Somewhere on there too I read a plan to build an elevator from the station up to the bridge.... looking at the elevation difference between the two, I can't imagine how much that'd cost.... better off building something near the NY 9G overpass. Regardless, a great job on the bridge - now I can imagine what those New Haven crews saw as they sailed above the Hudson on the massive structure!

My pics are posted here, along with a Hudson Line ride...
http://picasaweb.google.com/shadyjayvt/ ... udson91909#

[sd80mac]

The fall foliage was stunning in the area and I could think of no better viewing than from the bridge!

I know what you meant. I worked on Rip Van Wrinkle Bridge in 94. standing from the beam, below the bridge, right above the river and then above the tracks, the valley was stunning with full of color, no bare trees. That was in late Sept. Too bad it took a day for the strong wind to wipe out all of these leaves. One day, it was beautiful day and I looked at the valley. My work hours end and I went home in Honeoye, for my son's b-day. That day was very strong windy all over NYS. Day after the party, I returned to work and see every trees were bare. and that was only FIRST weekend of Oct!!!!! That fall, the leaves changed to colors real early.

It was one of nice thing to have the access to below of bridge - better view of hudson valley - everyday. I never had chance of going up to the top - right timing did not came for me. I was there for 6 months contract job.

[SecaucusJunction]

I was thinking about taking a "fall foliage" hike with a group of people over this bridge on the weekend. Are there trails that lead up to the bridge on either side? Or is it basically just park at one side of the bridge and walk across to the other? I can't find this information on the website. I'd love to walk through trails and end at the bridge...

[Noel Weaver]

On my way back from a weekend in NYC, I took the Hudson up to Poughkeepsie to check out the Walkway. The weather cooperated, and I got some great shots on the way up the Hudson. I printed out a map at home and took it with me to find my way from station to bridge. For those that don't have a map, however, there are small guide signs pointing the way. It was a good walk - about 15-20 mins or so. Entrance to the bridge featured a few landmarks left over from NHRR days including a couple ABS signals and some telgraph poles in the woods still up. Once out on the bridge... wow! Great job. Beautiful views! It is definetly one long bridge and when I was over to the Highland side, I turned around and headed back. Didn't see any freights on the West Shore Line but got a lot of great shots from the walkway itself of the river, the Mid Hudson Bridge, and the scenery around Poughkeepsie and Highland.

And oh yeah... a good amount of people were utilizing the bridge... some on bikes, some families, casual visitors, dogs being walked, etc. All looked like they were enjoying themselves, after being cooped up inside due to Nor'easters and really chilly weather for the past 3-4 days. The fall foliage was stunning in the area and I could think of no better viewing than from the bridge!

I read on the website that shuttle service is going to run from the train station to the bridge on weekends. Somewhere on there too I read a plan to build an elevator from the station up to the bridge.... looking at the elevation difference between the two, I can't imagine how much that'd cost.... better off building something near the NY 9G overpass. Regardless, a great job on the bridge - now I can imagine what those New Haven crews saw as they sailed above the Hudson on the massive structure!

My pics are posted here, along with a Hudson Line ride...
http://picasaweb.google.com/shadyjayvt/ ... udson91909#

These pictures are FANTASTIC and I thank you for sharing them with us. I think they are better than the pictures that
appeared in the newspapers.
Noel Weaver

[Bernard Rudberg]

At the present time there are no trails on either end of the bridge. The connecting trails are either under construction or planned for the future.

Until then there is an 80 space parking lot off Parker Ave in Poughkeepsie and a small lot on Haviland Road in Highland. Earlier today I was in Highland and there were cars parked along Haviland road in each direction for more than a quarter mile. We lucked out and got there just as somebody backed out of the lot.

Bernie Rudberg

[shadyjay]

These pictures are FANTASTIC and I thank you for sharing them with us. I think they are better than the pictures that appeared in the newspapers.
Noel Weaver

Thanks for the compliments, Noel. It was truly the perfect day to be up there... and to think I was going to "chicken out" when I saw rain first mentioned in the forecast. But I stuck to my plan, got up early, and bam... not a cloud in the sky! My verbal reaction going across the bridge, from end to end, was WOW! It must've been something to run a train over the bridge back in the day!

The only "downside" to the visit was a "character" in the station who was convinced I took his picture, which I did not. I ignored him and went down to platform level. I was also amazed at the frequency of trains at Harlem-125th, my first time ever actually standing on a platform there. A constant parade of trains... then again it was the start of the PM rush.

[njtmnrrbuff]

Nice shots Shady Gray. The views are terrific. However, if you want to shoot MN and Amtraks from the Bridge, the view isn't too good since there is a high fence over that part. the CSX it's fine.
Regarding the wierd character you saw at PO Station, I'm sorry about that. There are some weird characters over there. The city itself, I think, still has some bad neighborhoods. Around the station is pretty good.

[dwil89]

The walkway offers some nice views....chain link fencing does prevent direct overhead shots of the Hudson Line and River line, but there is plenty of room to walk out onto the Bridge to get angled shots or video.

I have just posted three videos onto the Railroad.net CSX forum in the video sharing thread.

They show some photoangles of the Riverline from the walkway.

[RussNelson]

Just walked it this morning. It was a great walk, excellent view. Amazingly crowded at 8:30 in the morning. I'd say there were at least 200 people on the bridge, with another school bus worth's walking on as we left. The parking on the Pok side is pretty limited, but there's much more parking on the Highland side. I took another panorama photo like the one I've got on Flickr, only this one includes the walkway instead of rails.

Only drawback is that the chain link fence needs photo portholes. At least half of the people I saw had cameras.