Page 5 - 2012_winter_issue

SEO Version

rails
to
trails
u
winter.12
3
members network
We’d like to hear from you.Write to “Members
Network,” Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, 2121Ward
Ct., NW, 5th Floor,Washington, D.C. 20037.
Or e-mail: magazine@railstotrails.org.
Letters may be edited for publication.
Nice View
Although not an example of “Chic
Cycling” (Spring/Summer 2011) quite
like the 1942 postcard from France during
Nazi occupation, I thought I’d send along
a photo of cycling from a happier time for
most French citizens. Tis is a photo of my
uncle, Sgt. William Gilley, on leave in Nice,
just after the French liberation and obvi-
ously enjoying his bicycling experience.
Keith Clark
TROY,MICH.
Hall of Fame
I thoroughly enjoyed the Fall 2011 issue of
Rails to Trails
, particularly the Hall of Fame
article. A note regarding the December
2010 Island Line entry: Yes, the sunsets on
the lake are sensational. Te backdrop for
these sunsets is the Adirondack Mountains
across Lake Champlain in New York. Te
views of the Green Mountains to the east
are spectacular as well. Sad to say, the por-
tion of trail on the causeway sustained
major damage this spring due to high water
levels.
Russ Davies
BOLIVAR, PA.
The Call of the Katy
I shall always remember the day in 1992
that changed my long bicycling life for-
ever. I was on a solo 1,000-miler from
Indianapolis, camping in state parks with
four cheap bags draped over my Giant
touring bike (still have it, still love it).
Northbound in Missouri, I crossed what
I assumed was the Missouri River. I had
heard about a trail called the Katy [Trail
State Park], but had no clear idea where it
was. I spotted what looked like the world’s
longest driveway. I saw a few walkers
maybe a mile east and thought the worst
that could happen would be an arrest for
trespassing. When I asked them whether
this was the Katy, as it certainly was, this
wonderful bikeway lighted an interest and
made me a crusader for rail-trails.
Robert S. Corya
INDIANAPOLIS
Philadelphia Story
As new members of Rails-to-Trails
Conservancy, our frst magazine issue
featured the Schuylkill River Trail in
Philadelphia (“Schooled Along the
Schuylkill,” Spring/Summer 2011). Your
article inspired us to cycle the trail and stay
in the area for several days. We loved it,
fnding Philadelphia to be a very interest-
ing and tourist-friendly city. Te trail was
a wonderful ride, just right on a hot day.
It reminded us of the trail outside our
back door, the East Bay Bike Path, which
we often ride with the Narragansett Bay
Wheelmen.
Michael Emma andWendy Davis
BRISTOL, R.I.
Memphis’ First
I have one correction to “Eye On:
Tennessee’s Harahan Bridge” (Fall 2011).
Te article noted that the Shelby Farms
Greenline was Memphis’ frst rail-trail. In
fact, the frst rail-trail in the city, and the
state, was the 1.7-mile V&E Greenline,
created by the Vollintine-Evergreen neigh-
borhood in 1996.
TomKirby
MEMPHIS,TENN.
Walkway Over the Hudson
I am recently a new member of RTC and
was delighted to receive my frst issue of
Rails to Trails
. I was especially interested in
the “Destination: New York” feature in the
Fall 2011 magazine, as I am a resident of
Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and thoroughly famil-
iar with the Walkway Over the Hudson
State Historic Park. I waited, as did all of
Poughkeepsie, to see what would happen to
this “marvel of the world” after the bridge
burned in 1974. You can imagine how
anxiously we all waited for the walkway to
be completed, and we are forever grateful
to Fred Shafer and his Walkway Over the
Hudson organization for their over 20-year
struggle to make the trail happen.
JimBliss
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y.
Te extension of the Hudson Valley Rail
Trail to the Walkway Over the Hudson is
a beautiful example of trail design—and
more connections are in the works to
develop a regional trail system.
It will take a while to get the needed
funding in place, but local trail advocates
have been exploring the creation of an
of-road bicycle and pedestrian trail along
Route 299 to connect the Wallkill Valley
Rail Trail with the Hudson Valley Rail
Trail. Tanks to a grant from the Hudson
River Valley Greenway, the inter-municipal
Southern Ulster Alliance is completing
a concept plan for this link. Meanwhile,
restoration of the Rosendale Trestle, the key
project for the northern extension of the
Wallkill Valley Rail Trail to the Kingston
border, is scheduled to start this fall.
Ruth Elwell
NEW PALTZ , N.Y.
Several readers correctly pointed out that the
Walkway Over the Hudson is not, in fact,
the “sole surviving cantilever truss bridge.”
Other examples in NewYork include the
Queensboro Bridge and the Hell Gate Bridge.
One of these readers, Olaf Olsen, also
posed an intriguing question: At 212 feet
above the Hudson River, is this the highest
bridge on a rail-trail?
We can’t fnd a defnitive answer in our
records, but our hunch says yes. So as we con-
tinue our own research, we put the question to
our readers and railroad historians!
Courtesy of Keith Clark