Anearly 7,000-ft-long railroad bridge is undergoing an extreme $35-million makeover over the Hudson River, thanks to hundreds of precast concrete panels, community zeal and the windblown determination of engineers and contractors. When completed by October, the revamped 121-year-old Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge may be the world’s longest pedestrian bridge at 6,768 ft, say officials.
The historic bridge’s 3,094-ft-long, 25-ft-wide main span consists of seven trusses supported on steel towers and concrete piers at each side of the river, plus four steel towers on concrete-and-masonry piers in the river. Soaring 200 ft above the Hudson, the structure also spans roads, rail tracks and a residential neighborhood and sits between the cities of Poughkeepsie and Lloyd, about 64 miles north of New York City.