Wikipedia:Today's featured article/January 15, 2013

The Hudson Valley Rail Trail is a paved 4-mile (6.4 km) east–west rail trail in Ulster County, New York, stretching from the Hudson River through the hamlet of Highland. It was originally part of the Poughkeepsie Bridge Route, a rail corridor that crossed the Hudson via the Poughkeepsie Bridge. Controlled by a variety of railroads throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the bridge was damaged and became unusable after a 1974 fire. The section of the corridor west of the Hudson was acquired from a convicted felon by Ulster County in 1991 and transferred to the town of Lloyd. During the 1990s, a broadband utility seeking to lay fiber optic cable paid the town to pass through the former corridor. The town used part of its payment to pave the route and open it as a public rail trail in 1997. While the trail originally ended at Route 44–55, it was extended eastward between 2009 and 2010, intersecting Route 9W and continuing to the Poughkeepsie Bridge. The bridge, now a pedestrian walkway, connects the trail with the Dutchess Rail Trail to the east, creating a 30-mile (48 km) rail trail system that spans the Hudson. The trail is expected to be extended west, where it will border Route 299. (Full article...)

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