After last night’s stay in Poughkeepsie I wanted to do something in the town before leaving to get to Ithaca. Fortunately there’s a big local attraction – the Walkway across the Hudson.
This is a former railroad bridge that crosses the river Hudson at a very considerable height above the river. By the late 70s or early 80s it had been abandoned by the railroad and was largely derelict. There were some calls for the bridge to be demolished, but a better idea was proposed – make it a public park, free for people to walk on – and that’s what was done.
The total distance is 1 and a third miles, between two informations points on either side of the river. Of that, almost all is elevated, and I reckon the distance over the actual river must be around three-quarters of a mile. The rest of the elevated section stands above lower ground on the riverbanks – there is high ground on both sides of the river and the railroad is at that high level, while the town sits down on the river bank.
In and of itself, it’s just a walk along a flat pathway, of course. But the views from the deck are amazing and I’m glad I did it. It was very hot, however: the temperature reached almost 25° during the late morning. And of course no shade on the elevated section, so I got rather sunburned.
After this I set off for the drive to Ithaca, and once again I underestimated the time it would take. I started between 12:30 and 1 o’clock, and I didn’t reach the Ithaca city limits until gone 5pm. America is big, even individual states, and I keep forgetting this. I may need to re-plan Monday morning.
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