![]() ![]() The bridge design's genius was in its ease of maintenance. Larned said the wooden bridge " was a wonderfully effective adjunct of the scenery, filling, as it did, the whole opening between the walls of the river by the lattice-like structure of its timber trestles, and seeming to be just a great gate, hung with no other design than to shut out the external world." He was referring to the gorge during the time his friend William Pryor Letchworth owned it and lived there for much of his later life. Pleasure seekers desirous of visiting Portage Falls and the High Bridge can leave Buffalo on the Lightening train at 6:15 or Mail at 9:35 A.M., and returning, leave Portage at 5:35 and arrive in Buffalo at 9:00, giving them over nine hours at Portage for the enjoyment of scenery unsurpassed in wild and picturesque beauty and sublimity." The railroads had also thoughtfully constructed Cascade House to serve sightseers.Īs many as twenty trains a day crossed the wooden bridge in both directions. ![]() An ad in 1853 for the Buffalo & New York and Erie Railroads added a special note: "N.B. The bridge was instantly hailed as the highest and longest bridge in the world and became a magnet for tourists. "When the train arrived directly over the river, and 240 feet above it, the people on board, and those on the bank, sent up such a shout as drowned even the roar of the falls, and as the train passed on, the cheers continued, amid the whirling of hats by the men, and the waving of handkerchiefs by the ladies who were scattered over the east bank and filled the balconies and windows fo the Mountain House." A great feast was held on the flats between the Upper and Middle Falls. Some accounts say that 10,000 people gathered to watch the first train, loaded with the governor and lieutenant governor and presidents of several railways, as it crossed the new bridge. The opening of the bridge in August, 1852, was celebrated in grand style. Looking from the flats between the Upper and Middle Falls. Total cost of the bridge and a station on the east bank was $200,000 ($5,855,023 in 2016 dollars). ![]() The dangerous work of construction from 1850-1852 was carried out by Irish workmen it was a point of pride that no one died during on the job. The iron to hold it together weighed 108,862 lbs. Its stone piers were of 10,000 yards of masonry. Silas Seymour was placed in charge of the final design and construction, which took nearly two years and required all the timber from 205 acres of heavily timbered land, 1,600,000 feet of lumber. A "congress of engineers" was needed to devise a design. The Genesse gorge location for the necessary bridge was 250 feet deep and 900 feet wide. After years of trying to secure investors, backers finally formed the Buffalo and New York City Railroad for the purpose of constructing a rail line between Attica and Hornellsville. Image source: Sketch of William Pryor Letchworth and Glen Irisīy the mid-1840s, commerce dictated that construction of a railroad bridge over the Genesee River was necessary if there was to be a rail link between Buffalo and New York City. Engraving from Scientific American Magazine, 1867. ![]()
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