Question: Village photographer Asa Warner had traveled almost 10 miles by horse-drawn conveyance to be on hand to capture the event seen here. A few weeks later he would sell copies of his photos taken that day for 25 cents each. Do you know where or when the photo was taken? Do you know the occasion?
Last week’s answer: The three photos from last week show the Route 370 Bridge over the DL&W Railroad tracks in various stages around the mid-1950s.The top photo shows it as it appeared up until it was replaced in 1957. A 1957 Messenger article reported that “the new bridge over the DL & W will be about 48 feet wide, over twice the present width, with six feet safety sidewalks on each side. The length of the bridge will be 164 feet and the entire road construction, including the approaches, about three-fourths of a mile.”
The photo on the left shows that same sight during construction. The traffic was “squeezed” over the Salina Street railroad bridge during its refurbishing under a state contract. The photo was taken by Harold Bovee. In the background is the temporary footbridge for pedestrians.
The photo on the lower right shows the nearly completed bridge awaiting the pouring of the concrete in August 1957. Another Messenger article stated that “a considerable amount of work remains to be done on the bridge and its approaches, completion of which is hoped for this year. The VFW Post home can be seen at the left, the foot bridge over the tracks at the extreme right.”
At that same time, the Cold Spring Bridge was also replaced (this was the one prior to the current one). Also part of this project was the widening of Route 370 starting at the Route 31 intersection (Four Corners) and extending southeast to Highland Drive, Cold Spring. The route outside the village was 18 feet wide and made of concrete. It was being widened to 24 feet and resurfaced with asphalt concrete, with one section where the road passed over the crest of a hill being widened to 44 feet. At that time Salina Street lost many of its lush trees.
Once again, Mike Mazoway was the first to respond correctly: “The photo is the replacement of Salina Street bridge over the DL&W Railroad,” he wrote in an email. “We walked across the pedestrian bridge many times on our way to Barnes Dairy for ice cream.”
Contact Editor Sarah Hall at [email protected] or leave a message at 434-8889 ext. 310 with your guess by 5 p.m. Friday (please leave the information in the message; we are not generally able to return calls regarding History Mystery responses). If you are the first person to correctly identify an element in the photo before the deadline, your name and guess will appear in next week’s Messenger, along with another History Mystery feature. History Mystery is a joint project of the Museum at the Shacksboro Schoolhouse and the Baldwinsville Public Library.
