Thursday, March 15, 2012
Beware? I think not. Yesterday, on a beautiful warm spring-like day, we drove north to Port Jervis, New York to take care of some family matters. We chose to drive along the slower non-highway roads of Route 6 and Route 17. We crossed the Hudson River via the Bear Mountain Bridge and drove through scenic Harriman State Park. The weather has been so warm and lovely this winter that although it feels like spring, the leafless trees reminded us that it’s still winter.
Engine of the Erie Railway
The sky was a bright cloudless blue and the temperature was tickling 70 degrees, as we drove through former farmlands. Port Jervis is a tired small city which looks like it had seen better days in the not-too distant past. It is located in a valley along the Delaware River across the Pennsylvania border. A small bridge connects the two states.
Largest Working Railroad Turntable
Port Jervis was actually a “port” on the Delaware and Hudson Canal when the waterway opened in 1828 to transport coal from northeastern Pennsylvania to New York and New England. The city grew and continued to prosper when new railroad lines were opened from 1835 through the middle of the 1900s. Port Jervis was known as a “railroad town”. All the famous eastern railroads, The New York & Erie Railroad, the Ontario & Western Railway, and The Erie-Lackawanna, made stops at the Port Jervis railroad station.
The New York & Greenwood Lake Railway
Before we left Port Jervis, we drove through several side streets to admire the old Victorian houses. Then we followed the brown signs to the “Railroad Turntable”. This was the “largest working electric turntable in the United States”. According to a sign, the original roundhouse burned down many years ago. I took a few photos with my cell phone and we walked along the old railroad tracks to get a closer look at the railroad cars. They seemed to be in the process of restoration and we talked about what riding the rails must have been like a hundred years ago.
The Dining Car
A commuter train into New York City is all that’s left of the railroad legacy of Port Jervis. The city seems to be weathering the current recession and very slowly adapting to the 21st Century. Life is all about “change”: physical, emotional, financial, practical, developmental, and geographic changes. I suppose cities, like people, have to change in order to be viable. How we adjust to the innumerable changes during our lives is determined by our ability to adapt and our personal resiliency. Our feelings of success and happiness are direct outcomes of our ability to adjust to changes.
Passenger Car
The Ides of March? Named after the Roman God, Mars, March is a time for change. It marks the end of winter and the beginning of a new season and more changes. Are we ready? Beware….