Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Tuesday was a special day for many Western New Yorkers with the arrival of the first barge carrying parts of the new Ralph Wilson Park Pedestrian Bridge along the historic Erie Canal.
In four total pieces, the Ralph Wilson Park Bridge started its historic journey when it left the Cimolai manufacturing site in Italy in early June on a barge, and traveled across the Atlantic Ocean and through the New York harbor. It was then loaded onto two barges at the Port of Coeymans near Albany, and started the final leg of its journey to Buffalo on the Erie Canal on Friday, July 5.
A number of residents flocked to nearby communities along the Erie Canal like the Twin Cities of Tonawanda to get a glimpse of the massive barge carrying Buffalo's newest addition that is one of the key elements for the Ralph Wilson Park.
"It looked pretty cool. I mean, I've never seen anything that big come through here," said Ken Parks of North Tonawanda, while sitting in his boat along the Erie Canal. "I couldn't believe how big it was. Almost didn't fit underneath that bridge."
Fellow North Tonawanda resident Tom McGann did not know what to expect when biking his way down to the bridge on Main Street. He says he was excited to see the barge make its way along the Erie Canal, especially with larger vessels like that being more of a rarity nowadays.
"That's the reason I came down here, just for the history aspect of it. You never see this anymore, so I just thought it'd be cool to see," said McGann.
As for Leslie, she grew up in North Tonawanda before moving to Buffalo. She can remember the days when the larger boats made their way down the Erie Canal, making Tuesday's occasion a bit special.
"I remember being on [the Webster Street] bridge when I was a little girl, it used to raise up, and we'd see things come through. I haven't seen that since I was a little girl, so that was pretty amazing," said Leslie on Tuesday.
Also taking place this week is the Canal Fest of the Tonawandas, which was just about to get underway on Tuesday when the barge made its way through on the Erie Canal. Deb Darling, recording secretary of Canal Fest, says seeing the barge with the Ralph Wilson Park Bridge should be a reminder to everyone what the Erie Canal was all about.
"To have Canal Fest happen as the barge comes down to celebrate the Canal, it was perfect," said Darling in an interview with WBEN. "The timing, we would have liked to be a little bit better so we would have had a full house, and everybody could have enjoyed it. But I do understand there's another one coming through that might be at the tail end of our event. But it was very impressive to see. It's a huge, huge structure on a huge, huge boat floating down the Canal of the cities. It was awesome."
Darling was pleased with the number of people that lined the bridge to watch the barge come through, and even give a 'Go Bills!' chant along the way. She also saw it as a nice gesture for people to come out and see the bridge as it made its last trek on a quite remarkable journey.
"The logistics, it's an international project. We don't realize how to transport something of that size," Darling said. "You think, 'You just order it online and it comes,' but you don't realize that it's not something you can ship by a truck. You have to get it across the waterways, and because of these canals and these waterway systems, it's how it all gets here."
Anne Sacilowski of Rochester came back home to Buffalo on Tuesday to see the first barge with the Ralph Wilson Park Bridge make its way down the Black Rock Canal, the final stretch of the journey to the park just several yards to the South.
"I've been following it on Instagram, and went out to see it in Palmyra in the lock, saw in Spencerport. Very, very cool. Real Americana," said Sacilowski with WBEN. "Everybody coming out with their lawn chairs and just wanting to get a glimpse of it. It was great."
Sacilowski understands the significance of such a haul of the bridge to Western New York, and how the Erie Canal has not been utilized for such transports in some time. She says it's no surprise to see the city going big with such a project.
"It's a Buffalo thing. It's gotta be big," Sacilowski said. "This bridge is not built in the backyard, it's in Italy, and it's coming all this way.
"It's pretty significant. That's a lot of money being spent for that park. It's going to be a big game changer for the West Side and for Buffalo, for everybody. It's gonna be really cool when it's done, and it's really great that the money came from the Ralph Wilson Foundation and other places."
Like Sacilowski, several other people in communities along the Erie Canal took the time to see the Ralph Wilson Park Bridge making its way from Albany to Buffalo. For Katie Campos, executive director of the Ralph Wilson Conservancy, the last 11 days has surpassed her expectations with the wide amount of support.
"We weren't sure if people were going to be interested in the Ralph Wilson Park Bridge coming down the Erie Canal. It turns out thousands of people were. If they didn't know about Ralph Wilson Park before, they certainly know about it now," said Campos in an interview with WBEN on Tuesday. "We were seeing hundreds of people start gathering at locks on the Eastern side of the Canal. As we got closer to Pittsford, 1,000. At Lockport, there were over 700 people this morning at 7 a.m. People are really excited to see the Canal at work, and it was really wonderful bringing Ralph Wilson Park Bridge to mark this historic occasion on the eve of the bicentennial of the Erie Canal."
Campos said Tuesday was an incredible moment for not just the Ralph Wilson Park, but for the City of Buffalo, as well as New York State.
"The Seneca Chief, with bagpiper Marley Becker on board, led the bridge to the foot of Ralph Wilson Park, and it was an incredible moment to watch," Campos said.
"It was really important to us that we could be really good partners to Canal Corp., and create a process where many people felt included, many people could be a part of it. We were excited when the Buffalo Maritime Center said they could have the Seneca Chief, the replica boat that christened the Erie Canal 200 years ago, lead the Ralph Wilson Park Bridge. ... And on all days, it was '716 Day'. It just worked out perfectly."
The second barge with the remaining parts of the Ralph Wilson Park Bridge is expected to arrive along the shoreline of the park within the next couple of days, though, there is no exact timing solidified for its arrival just yet.
"It's making its way from Pittsford, that's lock 32, and it's going to get to the foot of the park," Campos detailed. "Gilbane [Building Company] is starting work right away, as you can see right now. They're going to start picking off the pieces of the bridge, putting them in order and then start assembling them. That process takes about 6-to-8 weeks, they'll move the bridge across the park, and they'll install it over the [I-]190 in early October."
Additional construction work will take place on the bridge before Ralph Wilson Park begins opening in phases in 2026.
Campos calls Tuesday's arrival of the bridge a major milestone because she feels the Ralph Wilson Conservancy was able to deliver the No. 1 priority for the Buffalo community with this project: A better and safer access point to Ralph Wilson Park.
"The community has been incredibly involved in the design of the process, the community is still involved in using the part of the park that's still open. So this has been a process hand-in-hand, this is their park. It's great to be able to deliver this for them," Campos said.
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