Rapids are a “good III to III plus” according to Jeff DeFeo, Whitewater Race organizer. Cautions must be given that this is a re-mote area which, in fact, boasts the largest road-less tract in western Massachusetts. While people have worked hard and are willing to hike a long way to experience these monuments, there is another way to see them, including those still carrying trains high above the river in a kayak or a C-1. The trail and empty bridges are wholly on the property of the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. This dangerous practice was the only access until the recent completion of a hiking trail to two bridges abandoned in a 1912 line relocation. The beauty of these structures has drawn visitors for decades, all trespassers on the property of various successor companies to the Western (now CSX). Most impressive of these edifices were ten keystone arch bridges over the winding Westfield. Stonemason Alexander Birnie of Stockbridge was brought in to construct 27 bridges, culverts and walls in the mountain section of the line. The canal siphoned traffic down the Hudson River, but a railroad to Albany could recapture that trade.įollowing the West Branch gave the railroad builders the lowest altitude crossing of the Berkshire Range (1458 ft.) The serpentine course of the river made constant bridging necessary. So steep and remote it was said to be impossible, as ridiculous as a “railroad to the moon.” Yet not to try meant Boston would lose ever more traffic to New York as they had since the Erie Canal opened in 1823. The passage was ingeniously surveyed by Major George Washington Whistler James McNeil Whistler’s father. They are wholly dry laid, range in height to 70 feet and made possible the longest and highest railroad in the world, the Western Railroad, in 1840. Indeed, in terms of structure, the West Branch “rules.” Along its length sit the first keystone arch railroad bridges built in America. While the West Branch of the Westfield River is the only one without a dam, that is not to say there are no grand earth and stone structures. Whistler’s Wonders of the Westfield Branch It demonstrated that the possibilities of the technology were limitless.” The Western (Railroad) was the first to show what railroads must become in America speculative, long distance, and surmounting natural obstacles. “Many now-standard methods in surveying and track grading were developed here. ![]() The true import of these bridges is as elements of the railroad that thrust America to the forefront of global civil engineering, ahead of Britain for the first time, he continued. “This preservation objective has been unbelievably complex in spite of the beauty and historic impact found there.” “A hiking trail to provide access, a website, public lectures, thousands of pamphlets, a 2011 Senate Resolution, numerous historic listings and a documentary in the works, has failed to bring proper recognition to these structures,” Pierce said. ![]() The “KAB Trail” not only takes visitors to the first series of stone arch railroad bridges built in America but tracks the first Wild and Scenic River in Massachusetts, all within the commonwealth’s largest roadless wilderness. The Keystone Arch Bridges Trail is an historic and environmental experience mostly within the town of Middlefield and Hampshire County, with portions in Chester in Hampden County and Becket in Berkshire County. To learn more, please visit the websites for the Keystone Arches, and the Chester Railway Station & Museum. The trail then leads through a concrete arch beside a stone bridge, giving a tunnel effect, ending at the only double arch bridge in the series, also in use by the railroad. The twisting path then leads under a concrete arch with trains to arrive at two magnificent granite arches bypassed by the 1912 line relocation,70 and 65 feet overhead. They made possible the construction of the Western Railroad, the longest and highest railroad in the world in 1840.Ī Keystone Arch Bridge Trail starts at a stone bridge, still carrying trains. The first keystone arch railroad bridges built in America are wholly dry laid, and range in height to 70 feet.
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