A Spectacular Hike

Restless for a high flying, breezy excursion? A lengthy one? Complete with history, incomparable views of clouds, ships, water, a place for people walking their dogs, or sprinting half naked back and forth, or couples, all kinds, dreamily holding hands? The Hudson River Walkway is for you. Really. Just ignore that touch of acrophobia, and that secret fear that a river span will stand until you’re on it, and head for — at 1.28 miles—the longest pedestrian bridge in the world. This span, built in 1889 for rail traffic, bore Pennsylvania coal to fire New England industry. And it did its job until 1974 when a blaze destroyed the lower bed of the 85-year-old steel bridge. There it stood, between Poughkeepsie on the east side of the Hudson and Highland on the west, lame and useless but costly to dismantle, an eyesore, and, maybe someday, a menace to navigation. And though the idea of reclaiming it as a stunning, 212-foot-high walk above the Hudson bobbed around for a time, not much happened until 2004 when Walkway Over the Hudson, a group started in 1992, got serious and raised public and private money to turn a wreck into a walk. Five years and $38.8 million later ($10 million less than tearing it down, some figured), the Hudson River Walkway opened Oct. 3, 2009. Finished, beautiful, and a little wild up there with the wind blowing, and trains chattering on the shore and ships in the river cutting wide wakes in the dark water, it’s a hit, filled with walkers and cyclists and runners and skaters and just plain gapers, sunny days and overcast alike. People talk to each other, pick up after their dogs, wave at the police patrolling the span, or examine the photographs of workmen building the walkway in thin air. It’s a treat. And for some, it’s very special spot. A marker alongside the walkway notes the death of one Robert J. Lay who passed away during a stroll above the Hudson River, July 2, 2010. We found our way to the Poughkeepsie entrance by locating the bridge and then winding through local streets to get there. For information and real directions, call 845-454-9649, or go to www.walkway.org.