Messing with the blogging world since 2005
— Henry Miller
Millbrook Covered Bridge
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Millbrook Covered Bridge is one of the 14 historic bridges in New York I’ve had the chance to photograph.
I think I’ve finally caught up on most of my covered bridge photos.
I’m a covered bridge nut. Shooting these structures is like Americana. It’s somewhat like a lost era. When these bridges were magnificent and really appreciated. As time goes on, some of these bridges get into disarray, wash away or moved and allowed to fall apart. In time, many of these structures will be gone, so documenting them is something for the future as well.
However, sometimes I take a bunch of photos and then squirrel them away and post. Alas, I wanted to get them up and into sets and collections on Flickr.
I know I have some others to work on, mainly from a trip a few years ago where I got to see a couple in southern Pennsylvania and Maryland. Those are almost ready. I just need to get them labeled and uploaded.
I’m supposed to be heading to the Philadelphia area this weekend for a pair of disc golf tournaments. On Friday, my goal is to play an early practice round to see the course and then I want to cache in the area. Three caches are tours of covered bridges in Bucks County. Three caches cover many miles and 12 covered bridges. Of course I’ll add other caches along the route, but I’m super pumped that I’ll be able to shoot all those new covered bridges. At least that’s my hope. Plans can change, of course.
In my lifetime, I’d like to see as many covered bridges that I can, so if I can squeeze a dozen this weekend, I’d be pumped. Disc golf, caches and covered bridges. With the weather supposed to be cool and sunny, it sounds like a perfect weekend.
One of my favorite shots of Fitch’s Covered Bridge.
Some of my recent Flickr uploads include four historic New York structures — Millbrook, Forge, Tappan and Jay, all of which I found earlier this year. There are 24 historic bridges listed on most sites for New York. Unfortunately, Irene in 2011 washed away Blenheim. So that means 23 remain. A few years ago, I had set a goal to shoot each and every historic bridge in New York.
(Two excellent sources for New York covered bridges include: New York State Covered Bridge Society and Covered Bridge Site).
I’ll include all 24 as I, thankfully, has been to Blenheim.
Of the two dozen listed, I’ve now visited 14 of the bridges. Two of them are purely accidental. Let me explain.
Several months ago, a new cache was listed in our area. It was a covered bridge, so I decided to head over and make the find. After finding that one at Millbrook Bridge, I decided to head to another that was hidden at another, more modern covered bridge. Along the way, I passed two other covered bridges. Figuring I was here, I took photos. One was private, so I stayed on the main road and took a few snaps. I then went to the modern one and then tucked all the photos away.
Then, as I was trying to figure out what covered bridges I had been to/shot and which I needed to visit, I realized these two were historic bridges.
Score!
So that helped the total.
Of the remaining covered bridges, three are private. One seems to be able to be shot from the public road, one is at an educational place where permission is likely not too hard to get and the final is at a place not far from me, but appears to be hard to get permission. That might be the tough one. I do have a phone number, so I’ll see what I can do to be able to secure permission. I have heard, however, that the bridge has been quite damaged from the 2011 floods.
There are also a handful of authentic and non-historic covered bridges in the state, but for now, I’m concentrating on the one list.
Somebody jogs through Hamden Covered Bridge.
It looks like I’ll have some planning to do.
That being said, by looking through my list of covered bridges, I realize I often take different angles (as well as the traditional ones), but I don’t focus on some things others do, such as the inside. Though I find the trusses for the bridges highly interesting, often it’s tough for me to get good photos. A lot of times, I want to make sure I capture what draws me to the bridges, which is more of the outside.
In the near future, I’ll be updating my Flickr collection with more covered bridges — ones I’ve already shot and ones I hope to shoot this week. Then my quest for the remaining 10 I need in New York will continue.
You can see my collection of sets on Flickr. It will be constantly updated as I add more bridges.
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— Galen Rowell
The Blenheim Bridge, which was wiped out one year ago (Aug. 28, 2011) from flooding caused by Hurricane Irene.
Soundless Sunday is a weekly feature where I’ll try and feature a favorite quote and a photo that I’ve taken. Enjoy life — it’s the only way to go!
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Fields along Route 10 as you leave Delhi.
Hurricane Irene came and went and left quite a path of destruction. Though I believe it was actually a “Tropical Storm” when it came through upstate New York, it wreaked some major damage.
My town, which has often been part of several towns who can feel the wrath of these things decently hard, wasn’t too bad from what I’ve seen and heard. Some basements flooded and probably a few other things, but in the big scheme of things, it wasn’t bad. Same with Oneonta and most areas east. I haven’t heard much about Walton, which is usually a town that gets hit very hard. As of late Sunday night, it seemed much calmer than normal.
We got lucky, it seems
The Legion fields apparently got worse as the day went on.
But as we go further into the Catskills, the same can’t be said.
Margaretville, which is often the victim of these storms was hammered. As was Fleischmanns. Reading stories and such, places such as Windham, Tannersville, Prattsville etc., have experienced an amazing amount of destruction. It’s absolutely heartbreaking to look through Twitter feeds and Facebook posts and see what devastation this is causing.
For those of you who have been to Margaretville, you’ll be able to see how bad the village is. Many of these videos have been all over Twitter, Facebook and blogs, so you may have already seen them.
To see more, go check out YouTube as there are many videos from the storm and aftermath.
Since the last major flood to hit the area in 2006, there have been a lot of pushes in technology. Though the digital age was in full effect back then, this storm really seemed to utilize the digital age. When the 2006 floods hit, I was in Montreal under sunny skies, so it was odd knowing what was going on. I used the website of the local daily to try and keep pace, as well as phone calls and such.
This storm showed how media has changed in that amount of time.
Many props has to be given to The Watershed Post, an online area news source.
The Post has done a wonderful job of coverage, using its own team as well as reader comments, posts, photos and videos. The people at the Post seem to scour the Internet for reports and images, make numerous calls and have a live blog set up for immediate updates. Other news sources in the area couldn’t compete or compare as occasional updates on roads being closed or a state of emergency being declared can’t compete with real-time stories, images and updates.
The Post has continued its excellent coverage into today, so go there to check out the latest reports from area towns and municipalities about what is going on.
I haven’t seen the destruction first hand as county roads are closed. I’ve heard from a few people over that way, however, and it sounds awful. Be safe over there, people.
The one good thing is that the weather for the next week is supposed to be decent. So hopefully that will allow needed people to get to these towns, assess damage and get the repair part underway. These areas are going to need time and help to rebuild and hopefully things will go smoothly.
The damage isn’t just through New York though. Videos and images I’ve seen from Vermont are incredible and heartbreaking. One video I saw on Weather.com showed one of the many historical and beautiful covered bridges in the state being washed away.
Old Blenheim Bridge in 2008.
I’ve also heard reports that the Old Blenheim Bridge, a covered bridge near all the havoc not far from me, has been washed away. That’s sad as it’s a remarkable bridge (though only able to be used by foot now) and there aren’t many historic covered bridges remaining in the state.
UPDATE: I’ve tracked down the video on YouTube of the Vermont covered bridge going into the river. For those of you who are fans of covered bridges, this is quite sad and the reactions of those videoing the situation shows that as well. This is the Bartonsville Covered Bridge.
These are times that prove how destructive Mother Nature can be. The images and videos are incredible, but take a moment to realize how many people’s lives have been thrown upside down because of this storm. Mother Nature’s fury can be seen and felt by many and it’s a shame when things like this happen. Many people got out of this story somewhat lucky, but the same can’t be said for a lot of others. I implore everyone to keep that in mind when storms like this luckily miss or make landfall in other parts of the country. Keep in mind that no matter what, the results can impact someone in very bad ways and hopefully we don’t see another one like this for a very long time — in any part of the country.
Let this also be a reminder of how powerful water can be. It really is amazing to see how fast and hard weather can create damage.
Flickr member AustinHorse has a series of images that show the destruction in Windham. It’s worth taking a peek. Crazy what it looks like after the water has gone away.
Here are a couple of more shots I took around Delhi, but again, they aren’t anywhere near as bad as the ones I’ve seen through the Internet in other towns.
Fitch's Bridge with the river getting close to the bottom.
Back River Road.
Water runs across the road near Sherwoods Road Bridge.
Though it looks calm because of the long exposure, the river going under the Kingston Street bridges was raging.
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Perrine's Covered Bridge in Ulster County (New York)
During a recent geocaching outing to the Poughkeepsie area, I had the chance to see Perrine’s Covered Bridge.
Perrine’s is the second-oldest covered bridge in New York, so that was kind of cool.
For those who didn’t know already, I’m a bit of a covered bridge nut. I’m a big fan of seeing new ones and photographing as many as I can. In my area, there are three historical covered bridges within 30 minutes of each other.
In New York, there are 24 historic covered bridges. These are my favorites as most have stood the test of time, though some may no longer be open to vehicle traffic. I’d love to, eventually, see all 24 of these bridges. Alas, a few are private and at least one of those appears to be near impossible to get permission to see the bridge. That’s a shame as these are magnificent structures.
Two of those said private bridges are in my county. I’m going to see what kind of research I can do to attempt to be able to eventually see these bridges, but I don’t know if it will work out well or not.
Apparently, too, there is a non-historic covered bridge in my county as well. I’ve found a little info on it, but I’m not sure if it’s on public or private property. It seems to be an “authentic” covered bridge, but just not historic.
Of the 24 historic bridges in the state, I’ve now visited nine of them. I’ve also seen three in Maryland, one in Pennsylvania, and one in Vermont. I’d like to try and see a few more in New York this summer and maybe a couple in other states, if the chance is there.
As for Perrine’s…
It’s a really beautiful bridge. The main road zips past it on one side and the other side is picturesque. There’s a trail on the opposite side of the bridge from the road which is where one of the caches is. The bridge, itself, is also a virtual geocache.
The bridge was built in about 1844 and appears to still be in good shape.
According to Wikipedia, the bridge hasn’t had vehicle traffic since 1930. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 13, 1973.
This is worth the stop if you are in the area.
And if you see covered bridges anywhere, check ’em out. They are usually quite a cool thing to look at — especially the workmanship and craft of the historical ones.
You can see the rest of my photos of Perrine’s Bridge on my Flickr site.
Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.