Hamilton Fish Bridge, Newburgh-Beacon, NY

This bridge is one I cross every time I go to visit my son in Virginia. This is one of the few bridges outside the Hartford area I'm writing about that I actually appreciate for its utility rather than merely its beauty. This is the bridge that showed me the sheer beauty of the Hudson River Valley.

I grew up near the Blackstone River in southern Massachusetts; moved up to Concord, New Hampshire and the Merrimack River which I liked fine. Now that I live on the Connecticut, I thought that was the most beautiful river I'd ever seen. Then I saw the Hudson from the deck of the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge and was just astonished. Not only by the majesty of the river itself, but by the gorgeous landscape all up and down the banks.

It wasn't really the best weather when I went back to take my bicycle through Beacon, over the bridge, around Newburgh and back. There were lots of people on the bridge. A few bicyclists, a couple of joggers, a hiker couple. The river was still muddy from debris after the passage of Hurricane Irene.

Anyway. I couldn't find a decent place to park the car and assembly my bike. There's a Metro North station in Beacon about a mile down the road, but the parking lot was absolutely full. There was metered road parking but I was still hoping for "free". I eventually ended up parking in a small business park and riding to the bridge.

Once I was on the other side, I found the ACTUAL bridge parking; it's on the north side of the road on the Newburgh end of the bridge. Plenty of cars parked there. There is a small park on that side as well.

Beacon looks like an upscale artsy community. Newburgh was once described as the murder capital of New York. Seemed nice enough while I was there, though.