Unknown Location
This unidentified bridge crosses a steep gorge between a dramatic waterfall and dam. If you can identify this site please email archives@thehistorycenter.net.
Bridge at Cascadilla Creek
Boatbuilding was a thriving business in Ithaca beginning with the formation of the Cayuga Steamboat Company in 1819. By the 1870s there were numerous boatyards, including one owned by the Jarvis family, shown here on Cascadilla Creek. The pedestrian bridge crossing the creek was built high enough to allow easy passage of boat traffic below. The exact location of this bridge is unknown, and if you have any information about it email archives@thehistorycenter.net
The Octopus
The Octopus was first opened to traffic in June, 1968. The construction of the Flood Control Channel to alleviate repeated flooding in the Cayuga Inlet took four bridges from the city to West Hill and reduced them down to one. Originally Clinton Street, State Street, Seneca Street and Buffalo Street all spanned the Inlet, but the Flood Control Channel left only State Street, with Routes 79, 89, and 96 snaking up and away from the crossing like the limbs of an octopus. Problems with traffic congestion started almost immediately, and residents and members of local government chewed over possible solutions for years.Finally, in 1995, a massive multi-million-dollar project began to untangle the Octopus bottleneck when New York State funded the reconstruction of critical access points connecting one side of Ithaca to the other. Divided into three stages, the Seneca Street bridge was the first to be restored. The second stage saw the replacement of the Buffalo Street bridge and the opening of a new Route 96 bridge. The third and final stage, completed in 1997, saw the reconstruction of the State Street bridge and the Route 79 bridge over the Flood Control Channel, and traffic and people have moved more freely through this heavily traveled area ever since.
Six Mile Creek Bridge
Two bridges over Six Mile Creek are visible in this historic photograph: A pedestrian bridge at Tioga Street, and in the distance, a bridge for vehicular traffic at Aurora Street. Both of these locations had bridges from as early as the 1840s. This view is facing east and must have been taken by someone in the creek itself!
Columbia Street Bridge
Seeing the innards of a bridge during construction or upgrading is always a fascinating sight. This image of the Columbia Street bridge must have been taken after a 1964 inspection that notes several structural deficiencies. Originally built for vehicular traffic in 1895, it became a pedestrian bridge in the 1970s. The Columbia Street bridge crosses Six Mile Creek.
Bridge at East End of Goldwin Smith Walk
D20.162 – This early 20th century image shows a pedestrian bridge at the east end of Goldwin Smith Walk on the Cornell campus. This scenic walkway was one of a few that traversed the early campus, and like the one around Beebe Lake at Forest Home, it was enjoyed by tourists and students alike. The exact location of Goldwin Smith Walk is difficult to determine and if you know where it was email archives@thehistorycenter.netIn 2020 Cornell trustees voted to post-humously strip Professor Goldwin Smith's name from professorship honorifics, due to his documented racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic beliefs. However, the Board of Trustees stopped short of renaming Goldwin Smith Hall. Vice President for University Relations Joel Malina stated that “De-naming at this time was determined to be too simple an action versus engaging seriously with the full legacy of Goldwin Smith."
Fall Creek Gorge Swinging Bridge
Fall Creek Gorge foot bridge - This bridge spans Fall Creek at an unidentified location. It is reminiscent of the pedestrian bridge over the Flat Rocks section of Fall Creek, but the terrain looks a bit different from what we see there today. If you can identify this site, please email archives@thehistorycewnter.net.
Forest Home Upstream Bridge
This steel through truss bridge was built by the Groton Iron Bridge Works in 1909. It underwent major repairs in 2014, when the original truss was taken off and stored on the lawn of the Cornell University Water Treatment Plant. It was modified and repainted while a new steel and concrete structure was built, and then restored to the bridge, where it was connected to the new stronger structure. The truss no longer supports the structural load of the bridge, which is carried by new steel load-bearing girders. The project cost $2.3 million, paid for by a combination of federal, state, local, and Cornell funding.
Stone Arch bridge over Beebe Lake, Sackett Bridge
The beautiful stone arch bridge at the east end of Beebe Lake was built to honor Colonel Henry Woodward Sackett, a Cornell alumnus, donor, and trustee, who graduated in 1875. According to a tribute from Cornell, Sackett “was always interested in the preservation of historic places, fine scenery, and historic traditions.” He established a generous fund for beautifying Cascadilla Gorge, a scenic outlet to the Cornell campus. The bridge has been the site of adventurous swimmers jumping from its height down into Beebe Lake.
Cornell University Suspension Bridge
The dramatic suspension bridge over the Fall Creek gorge near the Johnson Museum is the second one built in that location. The first, constructed in 1913 by the Cornell Heights Land Company, was one of three bridges built to accommodate the new “suburban” neighborhood north of the campus. The others, at Stewart Ave. and Triphammer Bridge at East Ave., were for cars.By the middle of the 20th century the pedestrian bridge was showing signs of decay, and a new one was officially opened in 1961. The suspension design shares some of its strength and beauty with a spider’s web, with its cables, woven from many strands of steel, connecting to the massive towers at each end of the walkway.
Stewart Park Pedestrian Bridges
There are two suspension bridges over Fall Creek in Stewart Park that are part of the extensive walkways of the Cayuga Waterfront Trail, Ithaca’s 8-mile multi-use waterfront “destination.” Originally conceived in 2001, the Waterfront Trail opened its first section in 2003 at Cass Park, and Phase 2 in 2010, connecting the Farmers Market to Stewart Park and the Tompkins County Convention and Visitors Bureau. The section connecting Cass Park to the Farmers Market opened in 2015, while Phase 4 opened at Alan Treman State Marine Park in 2019. The Waterfront Trail is ADA compliant and passes numerous popular destinations, including the Ithaca Children’s Garden, and connects to the Black Diamond Trail, a celebrated trail connecting Ithaca to Taughannock Falls State Park.
Black Diamond Rail Trail Bridge
The Lehigh Valley Railroad was initially used to transport Pennsylvania coal to the Erie Canal and points west. Starting in 1896, the road's premier train was the luxurious "Black Diamond Express." It ran from Jersey City to Buffalo and Niagara Falls and was named for the most profitable commodity on the railroad: coal. By the 1950s transportation was changing with more private autos and better highways. Passenger trains were in serious decline, and by 1959, the Black Diamond no longer ran, and the railroad line from Ithaca to Trumansburg was abandoned by 1962.A combination of volunteers, the County Highway Department, and funding from New York State enabled this disused rail line to be converted to an 8.4-mile trail that runs from the Ithaca Children's Garden to the Jacksonville Road Parking lot above Taughannock Falls State Park. This scenic path along the west side of Cayuga Lake contains multiple bridges over the numerous creeks that traverse the hillside.
Plate Girder over Taughannock Creek
D20.193 – This plate girder was built over Taughannock Creek near Taughannock Falls to accommodate the Lehigh Valley Railroad, whose trains were a staple of transportation in Tompkins County from the post-Civil War period to the late 1950s.
Halseyville Covered Bridge
Built in 1833, the Halseyville Covered Bridge crossed Taughannock Creek on what is now Route 96 just southeast of Trumansburg and was replaced in 1928 with a simple concrete structure. It was one of three covered bridges that were originally built in Tompkins County, with the only remaining one now in Newfield.
Bridge over Enfield Creek, Robert H. Treman upper park
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a highly successful New Deal program that employed many thousands of young people during the height of the Great Depression. Much of the work they did was outdoors in infrastructure projects throughout the country. In Tompkins County, the men of Camp SP-6, Company 1265 worked on sites like Enfield Glen (later Robert Treman State Park) where they planted trees, shrubs, and grass, did masonry work, erected park buildings, and built water systems, roads, and bridges. Their handiwork survives in the beautiful stone bridges that cross Enfield Creek at the upper Treman Park.
Newfield Covered Bridge
This is the only remaining covered bridge in Tompkins County, one of approximately 25 in the state of New York, and the oldest covered bridge still open daily for vehicles. It was built by Samuel Hamm & Sons, David Dassance, and Patchen Parsons in 1853 on the site of a log bridge that may have been built as early as 1812. This bridge was built over the West Branch of the Cayuga Inlet entirely by hand, including hand-turned wooden pins called trunnels (tree nails), in a style known as Town Lattice Truss.Covered bridges were common in the time of wooden bridges. It was more cost efficient to replace a roof than to rebuild an entire bridge. It has been reconstructed twice, once in 1972 by Milton Graton and again in 1998. One of the 1972 updates included notching the entrance to allow for taller vehicles to enter the bridge. Other improvements included updated landscaping and cutting the diamond-shaped windows to allow more light to enter.
White Hawk Lane bridge, over Buttermilk Creek, Danby
Buttermilk Creek snakes its way from Jennings Pond in Danby north through Buttermilk Falls State Park and into Cayuga Inlet, and ultimately into Cayuga Lake. Jennings Pond Park offers hiking trails as well as lake activities such as swimming and kayaking. The extraordinary Buttermilk Falls State Park is a premier destination for hikers, swimmers, and visitors.White Hawk Lane crosses over Buttermilk Creek near White Hawk Ecovillage, “a group of people from all walks of life who have chosen to establish a neighborhood integrating ecologically sound principles and efforts toward community sufficiency.” The community is built on 120 acres and as of summer 2023, 21 of 30 available homesites have been leased.
Valley Road Bridge
Six Mile Creek is one of the county’s major waterways and serves as the source for drinking water in the city of Ithaca. Residents have been erecting the means to cross it in several places for many years. In the early 19th century in the village of Brooktondale, the creek was the source of power for several mills, including a grist mill, a sawmill, and a fine furniture factory. European settlers gave the area several different names, mostly honoring families who lived there, including Cantinesville, Mott’s Corners, and Mottsville. In 1883 the name was changed to Brookton, and then in 1926 to Brooktondale.The intersection of Valley Road and Brooktondale Road crosses Six Mile Creek near the popular Brookton’s Market.
Dryden Rail Trail Bridge
The rails-to-trails movement is a national phenomenon that began in the 1960s, as advocates worked to convert unused rail lines into pedestrian-friendly paths. A Rails-to-Trails Conservancy was founded in 1986, and Tompkins County has its own rich history of innovative use of former railway lines. The Recreation Ways of the town of Ithaca are good examples of this adaptive use, and in May 2023 a celebratory opening connected the Dryden Rail Trail with the Ithaca Recreation Way at Game Farm Road. The Dryden Rail Trail, where the former Elmira, Cortland & Northern Trail line once ran, is a 14-mile multi-use trail in the town of Dryden that is intended to serve as a transportation link between Dryden and Ithaca, as well as a recreational highlight for the community.
Peruville NY - Early 20th Century
D20.168 – This bridge over Owasco Inlet in Peruville, in the town of Groton is a metal truss bridge that may have been built by the Groton Iron Bridge Company. If you know of this bridge email archives@thehistorycenter.net
Groton Bridge, Conger Blvd. Groton
Brothers Charles and Lyman Perrigo started the Groton Iron Works in 1852, while Daniel Spencer and Frederick Avery began the Groton Separator Works in 1847 to manufacture agricultural implements. By 1877, they had joined to form Perrigo and Avery, incorporating as the Groton Iron Bridge Works in that year. They built hundreds of bridges over the years, and some of them in Tompkins County survive, including the Nubia Bridge, preserved in the village of Groton with a historical marker noting its date of construction, 1889.
Salmon Creek Bridge
The last train line to be built in Tompkins County, the Ithaca-Auburn Short Line was chartered in 1900 and passenger service began in 1908. Running up the east side of Cayuga Lake, it connected to the Ithaca Trolley system at Renwick Junction, where Stewart Park is today. This short-lived rail line has a lively history: A spur was built in 1909 to Rogues Harbor restaurant, where numerous Cornell students liked to party, often making the train rides noisy and festive. The last trip on the Ithaca-Auburn Short line was in 1923. The line is now used to move salt from the Cargill Plant in Lansing. This kind of truss-style bridge was often used for trains.
Cayuga Bridge
More than a mile long and built entirely from wood, the Cayuga Bridge crossed Cayuga Lake from Cayuga on the eastern shore to Bridgeport on the west. First opened in 1800, this engineering marvel was one of the longest bridges in the US at the time and was considered one of the wonders of Upstate New York. Due to pressure from ice it collapsed in 1806 and was replaced several times until 1857, when it was finally abandoned.
