Re: (erielack) Portage Bridge near Hornell (2)

[Jim Guthrie <jguthrie_@_pipeline.com>]

The bridge has alot more safety improvements in these photos than I remember seeing when I explored this as a teenager back in the 1960s.

Perhaps the wide walkways are a bow by the railroad to the inevitable visitor from the state park. After all, one wouldn't want the trespassing tourists to get hurt by falling through a rotted board or hole of some sort.

Keep in mind that the law on rail trespassing in New York is interesting and not so intuitive. If the railroad puts up a fence to prevent trespassing,  then it acknowledges there is a danger, so that a trespasser hurt on the property can sue, say, if they enter through a [prsumeably unrepaired]  hole in the fence.

However, if there is no fence, then the responsibility falls upon the trespasser who gets hurt. By leaving the area open, but making sure that there's nothing intricically defective, say, with the walkways and the like, the railroad reduces its liability.

Cheers,
Jim Guthrie
ELHS #1296


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