Photo Essay - Bridge Removal - Village of Spencerport
BRIDGE REMOVAL - VILLAGE OF SPENCERPORT
On April 15, the first day of the Union Street CSX RR bridge removal in the Village of Spencerport, two and a half year old Reece Ruta from the Spencerport area took a front row seat and his grandfather, Myron Fox, was nearby to point out the machines at work on the bridge.
Photo by Dave Knox
Workers prepare to cut out the center section for removal.
Photo by Dave Knox
A C.P. Ward Inc. worker makes the final cuts to the center section of the bridge using a liquid oxygen cutting torch.
Photo by Dave Knox
Bridge cornerstone.
Photo by Kathy Eichorn
Crane lifting the center section of the bridge.
Photo by Dave Knox
The center section of the bridge rests on the road.
Photo by Kathy Eichorn
Sections of the Union Street RR bridge are trucked away through the Village of Spencerport by C.P. Ward Inc. workers the afternoon of April 18. The metal from the bridge will be recycled.
Photo by Dave Knox
Travelers and tractor trailer truck drivers know the significance of this height sign. In the early 1990s a group of area amateur musicians used the tag line for their band name: Eleven Foot Seven.
Photo by Kathy Eichorn
The CSX railroad bridge over Route 259 in the Village of Spencerport April 17, 2013, shortly after the center section had been removed from the bridge by a large crane.
Photo by Kathy Eichorn
Spencerport’s Route 259 railroad overpass was in the news in the early 1950s when 17 cars came off the tracks and rail cars tumbled down the embankment and fell into the backyard of the Moore homestead, 200 South Union, now the Ogden Senior Center.
The cause of the train wreck was said to be missing spikes that attach the rails to the ties.
The engine of the train came to rest on the west side of the bridge span and a coal car was tipped on its side along the south side. A former Spencerport resident, Dave Grainer (son of Spencerport physician Fred Grainer who had offices on the corner of Maplewood Avenue and Coleman Avenue in the village), wrote in an email to Spencerport Mayor Joyce Lobene (which she shared): “It’s been quite awhile since I spent the day near that bridge watching a few Spencerport citizens helping themselves to wheelbarrows of coal and boxes and boxes of Sunsweet Prune Juice from The Train Wreck.” Grainer admits to playing hooky from school that day, with his parents’ knowledge, and says his mother could well be one of the people in the photo. Anyone who has memories of this historic incident in Spencerport is invited to share them -- see page 4 of the newspaper for contact information or email editor@westsidenewsny.com.
These photos are taken from “Images of America - Ogden and Spencerport.”