The Hudson Valley Rail Trail is a paved 4-mile (6.4 km) east–west rail trail in Ulster County, New York, stretching from the Hudson River through the hamlet of Highland. It was originally part of the Poughkeepsie Bridge Route, a rail corridor that crossed the Hudson via the Poughkeepsie Bridge. Controlled by a variety of railroads throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the bridge was damaged and became unusable after a 1974 fire. The section of the corridor west of the Hudson was acquired from a convicted felon by Ulster County in 1991 and transferred to the town of Lloyd. During the 1990s, a broadband utility seeking to lay fiber optic cable paid the town to pass through the former corridor. The town used part of its payment to pave the route and open it as a public rail trail in 1997. While the trail originally ended at Route 44–55, it was extended eastward between 2009 and 2010, intersecting Route 9W and continuing to the Poughkeepsie Bridge. The bridge, now a pedestrian walkway, connects the trail with the Dutchess Rail Trail to the east, creating a 30-mile (48 km) rail trail system that spans the Hudson. The trail is expected to be extended west, where it will border Route 299.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_Valley_Rail_Trail
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1759:
The British Museum in London, today containing one of the largest and most comprehensive collections in the world, opened to the public in Montagu House, Bloomsbury. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Museum
1910:
Construction on the Buffalo Bill Dam, then the tallest dam in the world, on the Shoshone River in the U.S. state of Wyoming was completed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill_Dam
1943:
The highest-capacity office building in the world, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense known as the Pentagon (pictured), was dedicated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon
1991:
Elizabeth II, as Queen of Australia, signed letters patent allowing Australia to become the first Commonwealth realm to institute its own separate Victoria Cross award in its own honours system. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Cross_for_Australia
1993:
Salvatore "The Beast" Riina, one of the most powerful members of the Sicilian Mafia, was arrested after three decades as a fugitive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvatore_Riina
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
floccinaucinihilipilificate: (colloquial) To describe or regard something as worthless. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/floccinaucinihilipilificate
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love. --Martin Luther King, Jr. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.