Current Portage Bridge
Immediately after the Portage Bridge fire, officials of the Erie Railroad Company moved quickly to replace the wooden bridge with an iron and steel design. Construction began June 8, 1875 and opened for traffic July 31, 1875. The bridge is 820 feet (250 m) long and 240 feet (73 m) high. It is still in use today.
Popular local rumor contends that the Portage Bridge was used for a famous scene in the 1986 movie Stand By Me. In reality, the bridge used in the movie is the Lake Britton Bridge in McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park near Redding, California.
On November 29, 2011, Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) announced plans to demolish the Portage River bridge and build a new one away from Letchworth Park. NS had offered the bridge to the State of New York, but the State declined it.
Read more about this topic: Letchworth State Park
Famous quotes containing the words current and/or bridge:
“The current flows fast and furious. It issues in a spate of words from the loudspeakers and the politicians. Every day they tell us that we are a free people fighting to defend freedom. That is the current that has whirled the young airman up into the sky and keeps him circulating there among the clouds. Down here, with a roof to cover us and a gasmask handy, it is our business to puncture gasbags and discover the seeds of truth.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“In bridge clubs and in councils of state, the passions are the same.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)