The Lehigh Valley Railroad Bridge

The Lehigh Valley Railroad Bridge. . Usually you build a bridge to avoid an obstacle in the way -but sometimes the obstacle shows up later., The Lehigh Valley Railroad was the last major railroad to built in New York State. It transported coal from the mines in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania. It also ran passenger trains on the route. The Rochester branch line opened in 1892., Imagine standing here when that first train passed by. You have to picture standing in a flat farmer's field -train tracks at the same level as the ground. There was no canal or canal trail in sight., When the Barge Canal was constructed in the early 20th century it had to go under the busy train tracks to reach the Genesee River. Thus, a bridge was built to carry the train tracks over this new waterway., When the I-390 Expressway was built in the 1970's it too had to "duck under" the tracks. Was it still a busy train route? We believe there was only one user at that time: the University of Rochester, getting coal deliveries for its heating plant., Very shortly afterwards, the train tracks were removed. By 2004, the rail bed had been adapted as the Lehigh Valley Trail for hikers and bikers across the expressway, the canal and the Canal Trail.