My First Bridge: The Dutch Kills Drawbridge

     If asked which bridge is the first one that I have climbed, then I would have to say it is the Dutch Kills Drawbridge. Part of the Long Island Railroad, though close to the Bushwick branch, this architectural disaster (don't get me wrong, I love bridges, but this had a very shoddy design) seemed as though it was going to tip over at any minute. However, I found a set of stairs leading to the top, and the warm air tempted me to go upward. Though it was dark, construction workers were milling about in the nearby sanitation plant. I kept myself as low as I could and took pictures. I left, somehow ending up at a LIRR station.
     I had no idea that by crossing into these tracks I was in Long Island Railroad property! I even pressed buttons on some of the machines to see if they worked, and, surely enough, they were active. My unintentional trespass was made even more sinister by the fact that several police cars silently lurked directly outside the station. However, I managed to slip out undisturbed through a cut in a fence and went on my way.

A few months later, a fellow explorer asked if I would like to adventure with her and we walked the Bushwick Branch, then went over the river to this bridge. We both felt that the bridge was sketchy, and noticed worker crews less than 100 feet away from us, but ascended anyway. Though the bridge is not much of a looker, I guess it was my first, and that makes it special for me.