Ive been searching for the Ogdensburg, Clayton, and Rome Railroad for years and years. I finally found OC&R plat maps in Oneida, Jefferson, and St. Lawrence Counties, but Lewis County had no trace of any OC&R map. So when I saw this cut stone bridge unaffiliated with any road, I decided that had to be a constructed bridge. I posted about it to railroad.net, and someone posted this in response: Russ, I dont think that bridge was anything to do with the OC & R. That place is called Collinsville. I photographed the bridge twenty five years ago with the permission of the family. They told me that one of their family members built the bridge as a kind of eccentric project. They lived in an elegant limestone home with stone outbuildings as well. They seemed quite sure of their family history and the story of the bridge. My initial thought was it was the railroad as well in as much as the survey or plan was to run it thru what was called the upper towns, such as Martinsbury, Turin, Houseville, rather than down the valley where the U & BR served the paper mills. Maybe there is proof to the contrary that the bridge was intended to be RR, or maybe the property owner built it hoping he could sell it to the railroad or get them to grade thru Collinsville. Since we dont have a map of the routing of the OC&R in Lewis County, its still up in the air.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 04:23:30 +0000