Dale Rosenkranz shot the vintage photo in August 1976. Its caption on the Amherst Historic Research Group Facebook identified the photo as showing “the construction on the bridge over Route 2 on North Lake, looking south.” It also noted that the George Small farm barn could be seen off in the distance.
I remember riding my bike across the highway here with my high school buddies in the early 1970s. There was nothing out there but farms.
Today, the same area is virtually unrecognizable with the highway overpass and all of the nearby commercial development, including the Cleveland Clinic and the Deerfield Crossing shopping center.
While I couldn’t duplicate the view exactly, here’s my “now” shot.
Whenever I think of the old grade crossing of Route 2, it reminds me of Amherst's "bridge to nowhere". In 1966 when Route 2 was opened as far as Baumhardt Road, the grade crossing of Oak Point Road equipped with only flashing lights, provided an extremely hazardous condition, resulting in numerous accidents. Meanwhile, while motorists we playing "bumper car" at this intersection, a mile east was a bridge built over Route 2 than had no road leading to it, and was thus unused and referred to in Amherst as the "bridge to nowhere". This bridge was negotiated into the road when Route 2 was planned through Amherst, with an eye toward future expansion of the city. However, it seemed absurd to have no bridge at Oak Point, but an unused bridge about a mile east. Eventually the road (Terra Lane) and approaches to the bridge were completed and the bridge was opened to traffic in December 1974 -- almost 10 years after it was built. The good news is that the bridge is now heavily used and provides the only crossing of Route 2 between Route 58 and Kolbe Road. As Dan's blog points out the bridge at Oak Point Road was still a couple of years in the future.
ReplyDeleteNice job. I like the then and now shots!
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