Stretching from the Town of Lloyd in Ulster County to the City of Poughkeepsie in Dutchess County, the walkway is 1.25 miles long and 212 feet high. It took $38.8 million of public and private money to refurbish the bridge, which was damaged by fire some 35 years ago. The Walkway is New York’s 179th state park.

I have spent considerable time in Waryas Park, looking up at the bridge, hoping that, one day, it would be converted into a walkway for everyone to enjoy.  The 111-year old, former railroad bridge is now the longest pedestrian walkway in the world.

The site covers two acres, including the pond, which was left behind from the 1801 excavation of the mastodon skeleton.  Noted artist and scientist Charles Willson Peale discovered the skeleton.

You can read the entire list put out by the The New York State Board for Historic Preservation here.

The gunman drove a car to the back of American Civic Association building to block the exit and entered the front of the building, where he shot two receptionists, Binghamton Police Chief Joseph Zikuski said.

The gunman then proceeded to a nearby classroom and opened fire, Zikuski said.

One of the receptionists called 911 to report the shooting, Zikuski said.

In all, law enforcement removed 14 deceased people from the building and 37 survivors, the police chief said.

Four of those were in critical condition at local hospitals, he said.

You can find more information and details at the Press & Sun-Bulletin‘s website.  There are also multiple videos online.

An added glory to see: Golden eagles drifting from the West have been seen this year circling Storm King Mountain.

New York’s January 2008 bald eagle count shattered a state record, with 573 birds spotted by helicopter and counted by a snow-busting ground team of many volunteers. That tally included 87 eagles on the Mongaup and Delaware rivers. The state Department of Environmental Conservation’s winter eagle count ended Jan. 14; totals weren’t ready last week.

But what’s fact is this: We’re now a big-time bald eagle watching destination. Eagle watchers now land in the hundreds at Narrowsburg’s EagleFest, which took place Saturday. And get this: Last January and February, the Barryville Eagle Institute volunteers “assisted nearly 7,000 visitors at the four public viewing areas on weekends in just 10 weeks.”

Bald eagles like life easy and, if they can, they’ll even use ice floes as a means of travel.

For example, five adults and 10 immatures began their voyage at New Hamburg at ebb tide on floe ice in full view of the train platform, and wound up 42 miles downriver, says the Hudson River Almanac — Huck Finns all, eating, loafing and congregating.

And, they can wait for what the American Indians called “the river that flows two ways” to take them back upriver.

At the former Middletown Psychiatric Center, the owner of 85 acres of mostly open land owes $407,306 in city and school taxes from 2006, plus interest. The City of Middletown bought the lien against the property Friday at a tax lien sale.

City lawyer Alex Smith said the lien increases the interest rate that the property owner, Montrose VA Project. must pay the city on the back taxes. If the taxes remain unpaid, the city would eventually foreclose. The owners have two years to pay off the taxes, said city Finance Director Dawn Gobeo.

In September, developers working with the Montrose owners had proposed a $30 million to $35 million project on the 85-acre site.

It’s a shame that it’s come to this.  Not only did several members of my family work there over the years, I played softball as a kid on their fields, rode my bike on the grounds, got into snowball fights, hung out with patients young and old, and had a grand ol’ time.  I even did research there for my 10th grade American Government class.  The library there was the only place at the time I could find information on AIDS and my mother helped me to understand all the medical and technical terms.

I loved looking at the big houses the doctors used to live in and was able to go into several.  They are just as beautiful on the inside as they are on the outside.  Unfortunately, most have fallen into disrepair and many more are gone completely.  I enjoyed traversing the long corridors of the many buildings, from Letchworth, where my mom was first assigned, to Tukerman Hall, where most of the elderly patients were.

I’ve watched the Psych Center slowly go downhill during my lifetime and it seems inevitable that all the buildings on this once magnificent site will soon be gone, replaced with whatever the new owners desire.  It’s sad to see such a useful site fall away and the owners unable, or unwilling, to pay their taxes.  Maybe something grander will replace it.  At least I’ll still have my memories.