page_title: Letchworth State Park
section_title: Portage Viaduct
hierarchical_section_title: Letchworth State Park / Features and activities / Portage Viaduct
caption_attribution_description: English: Upper Falls in Letchworth State Park, Portage Bridge in the background.
context_page_description: Letchworth State Park is a 14,427-acre New York State Park located in Livingston County and Wyoming County in the northwestern part of the State of New York. The park is roughly 17 miles long, following the course of the Genesee River as it flows north through a deep gorge and over several large waterfalls. It is located 35 miles southwest of Rochester and 60 miles southeast of Buffalo, and spans portions of the Livingston County towns of Leicester, Mount Morris, and Portage, as well as the Wyoming County towns of Castile and Genesee Falls.
  In 1859, industrialist William Pryor Letchworth began purchasing land near the Middle Falls, and started construction of his Glen Iris Estate. In 1906 he bequeathed the 1,000-acre estate to New York, which soon after became the core of the newly created Letchworth State Park. The park prominently features three large waterfalls – the Upper, Middle, and Lower Falls – on the Genesee River, which flows within a deep gorge that winds through the park. The rock walls of the gorge, which rise up to 550 feet in places, prompted the area's reputation as the "Grand Canyon of the East".
context_section_description: The Portage Viaduct is an iron railroad bridge located upstream and within view of the park's Upper Falls. The bridge is 820 feet (250 m) long and 240 feet (73 m) high. Although walking on the structure is considered trespassing, visitors to the park commonly disregard warning signs in order to view the gorge from the bridge, despite the safety concerns associated with walking on an active railroad bridge.
  On November 29, 2011, Norfolk Southern Railway announced plans to demolish the Portage Viaduct and build a new bridge approximately 75 feet (23 m) to the south of the current structure. Norfolk Southern had offered the old bridge to the State of New York, but the offer was declined due to a lack of available funds to convert the bridge into an observation platform. An arched design was approved for the bridge's replacement in late 2014 and construction of the new bridge was expected to begin in 2015, with an estimated cost of $71 million. The project is scheduled for completion in early 2018.
caption: Upper Falls with a train passing over the Portage Viaduct
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