Everybody has their version of a "happy place." For me, that "happy place" has always been the…read moreHudson Valley. When I was a kid, my parents took regular trips up to the FDR homestead in Hyde Park (my late mother was a staunch Republican, but she was a big admirer of Eleanor Roosevelt), the Vanderbilt Mansion (as a kid, I used to think I'd like to live in just such a grand palace someday, with its breathtaking views of the Hudson River below and the mountainous landscapes beyond...well, maybe in another life!), West Point, and an antiques fair every October in Salisbury, CT. Even as a restless kid with a short attention span, I loved our car rides up there and thought of the region as the epitome of nature's majestic grandeur and calming, historic beauty-- as far as I'm concerned, if God does exist, he exists in the Hudson Valley (although the residents of the City of Poughkeepsie or the City of Newburgh might tend to disagree with me).
When I was in grade school, we were close enough geographically to the area to enable our class to take field trips upstate, and we always came across this bridge. I never paid much attention to how we got to the bridge, but I remember vividly the slanting, sloping ride down from the tolls to the bridge itself.
Years later, exploring the area as an adult, unsure of where I was going, I stumbled onto the Rt 9W entrance to the bridge, and was delighted at the old memories it immediately brought to mind. Taking that ride down from the tolls to the actual bridge as an adult brought back memories in the same way that listening to "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" on the radio does. Talk about time machines!
Its 1930 opening was attended by then-Governor, soon-to-be President Franklin Roosevelt (probably my favorite President, with apologies to Abe Lincoln, although I have to say I've just finished a biography on Ulysses Grant by Ron Chernow...which I highly recommend...that upped my admiration for that particular White House occupant appreciably...but again I digress...), and Eleanor, who cut the ribbon on the west side of the bridge (the wife of former Governor Al Smith...who lost his bid for the Presidency because of his Catholicism...cut the ribbon on the east side).
It's probably wise to keep your attention focused on the road once you're on the bridge itself, but I've always been unable to keep from sneaking glances over at the glittering Hudson below, the train tracks snaking along beside it, the trees and foliage beyond (I used to take photographs at the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery on the east bank of the river, but you really can't see it from the bridge, even though you can clearly see the bridge from the cemetery).
Reviewer Ruth H. of Milton mentions that caution is necessary if you take the exit off the bridge for Rt. 9 South, and I couldn't agree more. It's the only unpleasant aspect of the passage from Ulster to Dutchess County. If you take the exit at a time of day (or night) when traffic is relatively light (or your car has great acceleration), it's not especially dangerous. At other times, though...it's dangerous. Stress inducing, at the very least. Vehicles speeding south from the north will come bearing down on you with potentially disastrous results. She suggests continuing on to Market St., making a right, and following that route to a safer Rt. 9 exit. I've never gone that way, but I will the next time I find myself making a journey in the area.
You can also go straight when you pass over the bridge, drive through the depressing urban blight of the City of Poughkeepsie (my apologies to the residents there, but that's how it struck me), and eventually enter the pastoral allure and spiritually restorative tranquility of Dutchess County's countryside-- i.e., my "Happy Place."
Not just a bridge, for me...but memories. Good ones.
