The Railroad High Bridge

The original wooden Railroad High Bridge rose 234 feet above the Genesee River and stretched 800 feet across the gorge. Finished in 1852 from a million board feet of lumber cut from surrounding hillsides, it was engineered so any one timber could be removed for repair without weakening the structure. In 1858, it gave William Pryor Letchworth his first view of the gorge and waterfalls that later became part of his 1,000-acre estate. The bridge survived the Civil War but burned in 1875, when it was 23 years old. A few months later, an iron bridge was erected in its place, and freight trains still use it today above the route once traveled by barges on the Genesee Valley Canal.

Genesee Falls, New York · United States