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 ALDRICH CHANGE BRIDGE
Project Coordinator: Jay Harding
Project Completed: September 2003
Project Budget: $210,000 (HUD)
In January 1997, after months of preparation, a
dedicated group of volunteers made a dramatic rescue from a
farm stream in Macedon, NY. The bridge they saved, the
Aldrich Change Bridge, was the only surviving canal
change bridge and the oldest cast and wrought-iron vehicular
bridge in New York State--and possibly the United States. This
unique historic artifact, built in 1858 and located in Rochester
before being moved to the Macedon-Palmyra line in 1880, was restored
and installed near its original location on the Towpath Trail in
Aqueduct Park. Visitors can now walk or bike up and over the bridge
in just the same way the mules and horses did over 100 years ago, as
they made their way from the south to the north side of the Canal.
Eric DeLony, Chief of the
Historic American Engineering Record of the National Park Service
documented the bridge for a record in the Library of Congress. At a
visit to view the bridge during restoration, he said, "This is the
most important ongoing bridge restoration project in the country."
View a gallery of project
photographs. |
