'Bridge work" at Sidney Center
Original trestle at Sidney Center was 1,500 feet long and 90 feet high.
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O. & W. Structure at Sidney Center Believed to be Without Parallel in State
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(Walton Correspondence)
Believed to be without parallel in New York State, Sidney Center, sizeable village 14 miles northwest of here, between Walton and Sidney, is spanned over its entire width by a trestle of the New York, Ontario and Western Railroad.
High above the southern portion of the village, the iron structure, laid with wooden ties, stretches hundreds of yards across the valley from east to west. The trestle was built, its cornerstone says in 1895, by Burke Brothers, contractors. It replaced an old wooden trestles threatened by fire many times during its existence.
The Sidney Center trestle has been an accomplishment in engineering feats since construction of the railroad, completed and opened over the entire course from Weehawken to Oswego in 1872.
The railroad was constructed as the New York & Oswego Midland. Its original terminals, before completion of its entire length, were at Sidney Plains and Delhi, via Walton. Later, the line extended to its present western terminal. Still later, it stretched southward to that terminal.
The southern portion of Sidney Center, old records reveal, was pretty much swam plans when the railroad was projected. There were few or no houses in that area. Old photographs show a single house.
When railroad construction, being accomplished by Irish “paddies” armed with pick and shovels, reached Sidney Center, engineers already had entered and emerged from the “headache” stage.
There the valley dipped, far down from grade lines of the survey. It was either a case of an extensive fill, tonight nearly impossible because of the lack of the present-day machinery that would be of use for that purpose, or construction of a trestle all the way across the valley. The latter course had been chosen.
First engines to chug across the new bridge were wood burning types. A wood yard was maintained at Sidney Center for refueling. Like stations existed every few miles along the railroad’s course. Nearby hillsides were harried for fuel.
Between Sidney Center (Maywood in the timetable) and Walton another engineering feat of the early days was accomplished with construction of the old “zig-zag” over an obstructing mountain range at Northfield station, eight miles from Walton. Later, then present tunnel was constructed.
The changing era has brought the Walton-Sidney highway one of the most used travel arteries in Delaware county, squarely beneath the long trestle. Fewer trains, by far, speed across the trestle now. The railroad force at Maywood station has been materially curtailed.
But the distinction of being the only village in this area to be spanned over its entire width by a bridge or trestle is still Sidney Center’s own.
(Note: There were two steel trestles there. The southerly one was built in 1896 (Bridge 216). The northerly one nearest the depot was built in 1905 replacing the wooden trestle. (Bridge 217).
O&W salvage train passing over Sidney Center, 1957.
Doug Ellison collection
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