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Read about the impending abandonment of Kinzua Bridge in the Erie Railroad employees' magazine as a teenager and so had to see it. Buffalo NRHS chapter ran a passenger special out of Buffalo via the B&SW sub division to Dayton, N Y then backed over onto the Erie's Dunkirk Branch for a faser than expected run into Salamanca, N Y and finally down the Bradford subdivision to the Kinzua Bridge. That first time I rode over it I don't ever remember feeling so vulnerable. It was an emotional experience. That was the Fall on 1958. There were two or so trips to the bridge the following Spring of '59 from Meadville. I rode one of them from Salmanca and then just before abandonment I had the good fortune of being introduced to Patty O'Brien the legendary Bradfore Div. conductor on the Johnsonburg turn. This was a daylight local on the Branch. Patty stopped the train on the Bridge for lunch so I could climb part way down to get a better perspective on things. Shortly thereafter Erie trains began using a connection north of Bradford to access the BR&P and used it all the way into Brockway until Conrail and the demise of the EL. There was an all-night through train that went to Brockway, Pa with traffic for local customers in the area but most went to the Pittsburg & Shawmut, often 100 cars mostly of coal. In the dead of night I can only believe that crews must have wondered whether the bridge was going to be there. Those were the days. Sorry to hear the news. WJM
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