New Trail Bridge Goes Up in Platte Clove

Eighteen volunteers from the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference made quick work of building a new trail bridge over Platte Kill Creek in the Platte Clove Preserve on the last weekend of June. The volunteer crew completed a new 30-foot span that is an important link in the Long Path, the 350-mile trail that extends from the George Washington Bridge to Altamont near Albany. The bridge replaces one built in 2001 but recently found to be damaged.

The new bridge was designed and pre-assembled at home by volunteers Doug and Pete Senterman of Elka Park. Its parts were then moved to the site the day before final construction.

At the Platte Clove Preserve project site, volunteers first had to build a temporary scaffold across the stream to hold the centerpiece of the bridge; then the main support beams were installed and bolted in. The kingposts (the two vertical posts in the middle) were installed, followed by the angled support beams.

This bridge is a modern version of the kingpost design, a very popular bridge style used in the Catskill region in the 1800s. The location of the bridge and its abutments once supported a wider span that carried horse-pulled carriages over the creek.

Thanks go to the following volunteers for making quick work of this new trail bridge: Doug Senterman, Pete Senterman, Laurie Rankin, Tom Rankin, Jonathan Mogelever, Samira Dere, Cal Johnson, Rob Almanza, George Prokopiak, Connie Sciutto, Jim Erickson, Maria Bedo, Karl Graf, Andrew Flach, Bryan Morriseey, Martin (last name unknown), Bruce Warden, and S. Gallina Simpson.

Material for the bridge was purchased with funds from the Trail Conference’s Catskill Trails Program. The program provides training, support, and supplies for trail projects and trail volunteers in the Catskill Mountain region. To support the Catskill Trails Program with a donation, please go to nynjtc.org/product/donate-catskills-trail-program. To adopt a Catskill trail or lean-to, to volunteer with a trail crew, and to find links to additional information about the Catskills, please go to nynjtc.org/catskills.