Work around the downtown library building exposes the subway bed below.
While half of Rochester spends their days indoors, patiently sheltering in place, significant work is being done to the Rundel Library Terrace. This road-level platform covered the old Rochester Subway bed, which itself was built within the old Erie Canal aqueduct and Johnson-Seymour Raceway, the latter being older than the City of Rochester itself. If you’re able to safely find your way downtown, take a peek at the work being done. Otherwise, enjoy this preview of the demolition work.
Crews are hard at work excavating for the Rundel Terrace project. In the process, they’ve removed the roof of the old Rochester subway and shed some light on an area that hasn’t seen the sun in about 90 years.
The Broad Street bridge is finally open to traffic! Sort of. Crews are allowed to park on the old Subway bed.Light shines through the open road deck above, as seen through one of the many arches of the Broad Street (driving) bridge, built atop the Erie Canal Aqueduct bridge.An 1890 view of the bend in the aqueduct. The photographer was standing in the area now being excavated. This is a 1924 view of the same spot, when the bridge served dual purposes, as a subway right-of-way and an aqueduct.
![Title: Aqueduct becomes Broad Street Bridge [photograph]. Photographer/Artist: Stone, Albert R., 1866-1934. Date: 1924? Physical Details: 1 photograph : b&w ; 5 x 5 in. Collection: Albert R. Stone Negative Collection, Rochester Museum & Science Center, Rochester, NY Summary: Work proceeds on the Broad Street Bridge. The lower level, which will become the subway, has been opened to ground level at the east end of the bridge. Flood waters almost fill the lower archways. The Broad Street Bridge was built between 1922-1924 over what had been the 1842 Erie Canal Aqueduct. Rochester Images image Number: sct09735 http://www.rochester.lib.ny.us/rochimag/rmsc/ scm09/scm09735.jpg](https://jayrowe.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/ROC-BroadStreetBridge-1924d.jpg)