Talcottville Iron Bridge, Talcottville, CT... again

Talcottville Main Street Bridge

I wasn't all that happy with my recent post about the Talcottville Main Street Bridge. First, I'd cleverly timed my photos just before leaves started opening, making a rather barren picture. Secondly, because I didn't even go on the bridge. I was already on the mill grounds and just shot it from there.

If I'd gone on the bridge and past it, I'd have come to the Talcott Ravine trails that connect to Vernon's branch of the Rails-to-Trails project. And I'd have seen the pond and gotten a much better view of the bridge -- with the water tower from the mill standing behind it, and the dam just past the bridge allowing the foliage on the banks of the Tankerhoosen River to show.

I'd have had the picture above.

The old bridge railing

This iron railing must once have been on the inside of the bridge, where steel guardrails now keep cars from slipping off the edge of the bridge. It was likely fastened on the outside to cover up the steel reinforcements that keep the bridge together. This bridge could really use a complete renovation. I'm not sure Talcottville is enough of a tourist draw to get Vernon to spend the million bucks or so to rebuild the bridge (I have no idea how much it would cost). Maybe if they find someone to buy the mill and do something fun with it, the bridge would get some love. Not while the mill slides forgotten into ruin, though.

First house built in Talcottville (1802)

So, if you want to see an incredibly historic bridge fixed up, come visit historic Talcottville. You can see the whole place in half an hour -- an hour and a half if you want to go down the ravine trails. There were some guys fishing in the pond, too, so bring your fishing stuff!

It's all about the Tankerhoosen, you know.

Merritt Parkway, Greenwich, CT

North Street Bridge

Kind of an unusual shot. I was on my way back from Virginia. I usually swing wide to avoid major cities -- and their tolls -- but this time, I made the straight shot up the coast on Route 95 and the NJ Turnpike. So many tolls. So many great bridges, too, from the Woodrow Wilson in DC to quite a few in the Baltimore area to the absolutely stupendous Delaware Bridge and just as twilight ended, over the George Washington Bridge. I didn't get pictures of any of them. Someday.

I was out of money after the Geo. Washington, so I figured I'd avoid the toll in White Plains and just go up the Hutchinson Parkway to my old friend, the Merritt Parkway, home to some of the most intriguing bridges in the state of Connecticut. It being dark, I didn't expect to get any pictures... but Fate intervened.

There was a tragic accident up ahead, and we ended up parked on the parkway (aha!) for a good forty five minutes. Right in front of the North Street bridge in Greenwich. Rested the camera on the dash and got this long exposure picture.

Merritt Parkway

I had bought a dashboard mount for my iPhone awhile back with the intent of taking pictures from the car of the Merritt Parkway bridges because I couldn't think of any better way to take pictures of dozens of ornate bridges from a highway where places to stop were rare and in any case, not well-placed for bridge photography.

The pictures came out -- sorta. This one above, from outside the Sikorsky plant in Stratford, I took with the regular camera. When the Merritt Parkway was first built, each underpass and overpass was designed to reflect a different art style or construction technique. The planners just wanted to make a really beautiful road for travelers from or to New York to skip past the coastal cities on Connecticut's "handle". The bridge above would have worked just as well without the iron leaves... but it was more beautiful with them.

I'm adding some of the pictures automatically taken on the car trip below. Not great quality, I just had the iPhone on the dash snapping whatever it saw every three seconds, but it should give an impression of the wide variety and detail of the bridges on the Merritt Parkway.

Talcottville Iron Bridge, Talcottville, CT

Talcottville Iron Bridge

This one's a local bridge -- it's right down the road, yet I'd never heard of it until today, when I ran across it while photographing the Talcottville Mill. It crosses the Tankerhoosen River just above a dam on Talcottville's Main Street. It's a pony truss bridge made, presumably, of iron.

The historic bridge site says this bridge was built by the famous Berlin Iron Bridge Company, and is the only pony truss bridge where the truss members actually bear the weight of cars crossing the bridge. A pony truss bridge, by the way, is one with no trusses connecting the sides along the top.

I was in my car, since I was coming back from a photography trip up in Shenipsit State Park, but this is a bridge that needs my bicycle on it.

Talcottville Mill

This mill was the center of Talcottville for decades. The Talcott brothers had bought the mill and the surrounding lands from Nathaniel Kellogg, who had named the area Kelloggville. No shortage of ego on either side, there. The Talcott brothers built twin homes across the street on hills, overlooking the mill. The mill remained active in some form through the 20th century, though it is all entirely abandoned now.

Just about time to recondition it into luxury apartments...

You can (and should!) read more about Talcottville's historic legacy, as the story it tells is repeated, with minor variations, throughout the northeast. Talcottville today is a historic district within Vernon, CT, and signs along the few roads point out and explain the historic significance of the mill and other relics of an elder age.

Whitestone Bridge, Bronx-Queens, NY

Bronx-Whitestone Bridge

It's a big bridge to be found by accident, but that's how I came by it. I was headed down the Merritt Parkway, hoping to get half decent car pictures of those bridges (I did, some of them). I'd gotten a bonus bridge at the Sikorsky factory. Since the Merritt Parkway leaves off in New York, I wondered if I could get a quick borough bridge  Maybe the Brooklyn Bridge. That would be a nice one.

I blindly followed Google Maps and saw I was about to come to the Whitestone Bridge -- and it had a toll. It also had a park right next to it... and it suddenly became the NYC bridge of the day (followed soon after by the Pelham Bridge, but that's a topic for another, shorter post).

Whitestone Bridge

The Whitestone Bridge crosses the East River, connecting the borough of the Bronx with the borough of Queens. Construction was managed by famous civil engineer Robert Moses, who, in his typical ruthless efficiency, tore down as many Queens homes as necessary to anchor the bridge. He and designer Othmarr Ammann would later collaborate on the nearby Throgs Neck Bridge, which I did not visit this trip.

The Bronx side of the bridge rises from Ferry Point Park. Bronx has many really nice parks; Ferry Point Park, though, has a wonderful view of Manhattan and is incredibly accessible.

Ferry Point Park

There is no pedestrian or bicycle access to the bridge. There is ample parking at Ferry Point Park, with easy access from route I-678. As mentioned before, you'll pay handsomely to take a jaunt to Queens on the bridge -- and you'll pay on the way back as well. At least the George Washington Bridge has the decency to charge only one way.

The bridge's proximity to the park make it a fantastic backdrop to weekend family enjoyment.

Bronx end of the Whitestone Bridge

I'm so, so very happy spring has come. Finally there's some life in these pictures.

South Maple Street Bridge, Enfield, CT

South Maple Street Bridge

This isn't the first time I missed a historical bridge and had to make do with the replacement, but in this case, I'm pretty happy about it. The previous South Maple Street Bridge was a low, pony truss bridge, one of many at this site. Its replacement, above, is something entirely new.

New for Connecticut, anyway.

This bridge was built in a factory in several locking pieces before it was brought to this site and assembled in place. The masonry at both ends of the bridge is a facade, molded into the concrete when it was poured on a factory floor. It's steel reinforced concrete through and through. This is the first bridge in the state to be entirely prefabricated offsite.

Old South Maple Street Bridge

I was in the area for the Scantic Spring Splash, an annual river race for kayaks and canoes down the Scantic River from Somers to Enfield. When I read the finish line was a bridge, it had to be my bridge of the week.

There was a shuttle bus between the Enrico Fermi High School and the Powder Mill Barn; those wishing to see the bridge when there isn't a race going on can likely park at Powder Mill Barn. There is also some parking at Powder Hollow Park, immediately adjacent and on the other side of the river. Plenty of family friendly hiking trails, and be sure to bring your dog. Everyone else does!

Charter Oak Bridge, Hartford-East Hartford, CT

Charter Oak Bridge

It doesn't carry as much traffic as the Bulkeley Bridge, and it isn't the city centerpiece that Founders Bridge is, but the Charter Oak Bridge, the third (and newest) of Hartford's bridges across the Connecticut, has its own reasons to shine.

The Charter Oak that gave its name to the Hartford neighborhood where this bridge lands is a tree of legend in Connecticut. In 1662, the story goes, King James II decided that the colonies had had quite enough of this independence thing and appointed a governor, Edmund Andros, over the newly created Dominion of New England. When he arrived in Hartford to revoke Connecticut's charter, he was shown it, and then the candles blew out. When relit, the charter was gone -- hidden, it was said, in a huge oak tree, the Charter Oak, in south Hartford. In 1689, Andros was deposed and the Dominion of New England dissolved.

The original Charter Oak was split by lightning 150 years later, but its descendants live on, and the wood of the original tree was made into a chair which stands now in the State House.

Connecticut has always prided itself on its independence -- it was the first state to ratify the Constitution. The Charter Oak is Connecticut's symbol.

Charter Oak Bridge from the tour ship landing

The East Hartford side of the bridge stands in a small park which is (unfortunately) rather marshy. The Hartford side ends in Charter Oak Landing, the main dock for boats both personal and commercial in Hartford.  The Lady Katherine river tours leave from here. (The boat used to leave from Riverside Park near Founders Bridge, dunno why they moved down here). The public landing is on the south end of the park; the north end gives magnificent views of of the Colt Park section of Hartford (marked by the colorful dome on the old Colt Firearms factory) and of the Hartford skyline.

Charter Oak Landing

This picture may have been processed a little bit. I was having some fun with the new version of Picasa. You can see the Colt factory dome on the left of the photo.

Obligatory car shot

I don't honestly know how to get to the park in East Hartford. I've only been there on my bike, and I got there from the bridge itself, which features a wide, separated bike path on the north side. Charter Oak Bridge carries routes 5 and 15 over the river; following those signs will get you there. Or just click on the location information beneath this post and use Google Maps to get you there.

I've gotten to the end of this post without talking much about the bridge itself. You can see from the pictures that it's not all that special, a very modern girder bridge built with steel and concrete, similar to the East Windsor river crossing. It was built between 1988 and 1991 to replace an earlier bridge at the same point. Anyone going from I-84W to I-91S will cross the bridge and will never see the beautiful parks beneath it.

Heublein Tower, Talcott Mountain State Park, Simsbury, CT

Heublein Tower

I have plenty of bridges waiting to be photographed, and some I have photographed but haven't yet written about. But I'm holding off a little. Spring has come to Connecticut and in a month or so the trees will be full of leaves. I'm just getting a little tired of taking photographs where all the trees are leafless. The northeast is getting dressed and when it's ready, I have bridges from Poughkeepsie to Providence to Portsmouth on the way.

I was going to photograph Hartford's Founders Bridge today, but the weather was so beautiful that I just drove past Hartford and headed to Bloomfield and up to Talcott Mountain State Park. I had this naive idea that it would be a quiet climb up the mountain. No way! The trails were crowded with moms, dads, kids and dogs all the way up and all the way back. Cars lined the road on both sides at the trail head.

My goal was the top of the mountain and Heublein Tower (pronounced HIGH-blayne). The tower sticks well above the trees and is visible for miles and miles all around the greater Hartford area. It was built by a German financier; the unusual pronunciation of the tower comes from an Anglicization of its German pronunciation, you see. He built the tower strong enough to withstand 100 mph winds. Apparently he didn't build it strong enough to withstand fire; it's been rebuilt a couple of times.

It's said presidents and diplomats have met here. Ronald Reagan visited the tower once. I bet none of them had to hike up.

 Parking at Talcott Mountain State Park is roadside; put on your emergency brake. There's a helipad at the end of the road for emergency transport of people who forgot to put on their emergency brakes, and for turning around when it's time to leave.

The path is wide enough for a car and well-packed all the way up. It's a little steep in places, but there are plenty of places to rest along the way, including vantage points from which can be seen stunning clifftop views of the Farmington River Valley.

The path divides occasionally into a steeper path that sticks more closely to the edge of the cliffs, and an easier path that delves further into the woods. Visitors uncomfortable with walking on the edge of a cliff may prefer that branch (but you're missing some awesome views!).

The tower itself is open from Memorial Day through October, and is known throughout the area as the place from which to view the autumn foliage in all its awesomeness. The park itself is open year round from dawn to sunset.

The park has many barbecue pits, fireplaces, picnic tables and paths to explore once at top. Standard hiking rules apply -- take out what you bring in.