Forks

Forks. Cheektowaga Historic Rails to Trails. The area of Cheektowaga known as Forks, New York is located in the middle of the town at the junction of Broadway and Union Roads. A major railroad station was at this location and in the 1920s the present Town Hall was built. , Behind the now existing Town Hall and Highway Garage there are three giant concrete columns. This is all that remain of one of the largest coal trestles ever built in the United States, extending over half a mile. , In the early 1880s most homes and industries were heated with coal as well as ran industries, mills and steam engines. The trestle was built of wood and concrete for the purpose of providing uninterrupted coal service for its customers. It would transfer coal from rail car to waiting horse drawn wagons and later motor driven trucks. Hopper cars would be pushed by a switch engine up the trestle to the second story and the bottom of the hopper would empty their contents into the wagons below. , The coal trestle survived into the 1920s when a fire and its outdated construction would spell its demise. An oral tale of the fire that destroyed the trestle has been passed on for many years involving a love triangle between the owner of the trestle and two of his employees. , The owner's wife would fall in love with one of the employees and they would devise a plot to kill her husband. Her lover removed the pins holding the beams of the trestle above the owner's office and railroad cars fell through the floor and killing the owner instantly. Unfortunately for the two lovers he had installed a new furnace which used gas that was to soon replace coal. The building filled with fumes from the ruptured gas line and then exploded destroying the trestle as well as the two lovers. The bodies were never recovered and many tales of strange happenings at the sight of the trestle have continued to circulate over the years. . This historical marker is in Cheektowaga in Erie County New York