So I try to keep my topics a little more on the esoteric side; if it seems like something most people have already heard about, why bother going into it at length? But sometimes I stray towards a more well-known subject if it follows one rule: the Rule of Cool.

One thing I find cool is the Main Street Bridge. It’s a fairly well-known fact, but up until 1965, the Main Street bridge over the Genesee River used to have buildings built along either side, making the bridge appear like a normal street while crossing, and obscuring the river from view. Rochester natives would get a bit of a kick out of informing visitors when they were standing midway across the Genesee.

The history of this span is a long one, and while I will start at the beginning I won’t get into too much detail.

If I can help it.

Which, if you’ve seen any of my posts, you know I won’t be able to.

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First Bridge: 1812

The very first bridge at this site was constructed in 1812, out of wood. The below illustration shows the structure during its construction, with the eastern side built, still to be connected to the western bank of the Genesee. Given the disparity in elevation between the two banks, the bridge would ramp down to the lower west bank. Later iterations of the bridge would endeavor to lessen the grade, to diminish the strenuous obstacle that would be known to history as “Main Street Hill”.

This bridge would function admirably for many years; damaged considerably in a flood in 1817, repairs proved to be ineffective in the long run. As the structure began to give out, a new wooden bridge was planned. Construction of this new bridge was begun in 1824.

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Second Bridge: 1827

Elisha Johnson was contracted to build a new bridge, starting in 1824, which was completed in 1827.

One of the first structures constructed along this new bridge was a public market. Due to this, the bridge was known as the “Market Bridge”.

As a consequence of the rapids over which the bridge was built, the Genesee River south of the bridge was considered to be non-navigable by vessels. This allowed considerably more development along the bridge than other bridges were afforded, since the sides and arches of the bridge were not legally required to stay clear for river-based traffic.

Immediately, buildings–primarily of wood–began to spring up along the north side of the bridge, although they were more like market stalls than anything.

In 1827, a prominent four-storey stone building called the Globe Building was erected on the northwest corner of Water Street and Main Street, its corner resting upon the bridge and accessed via wooden walkways.

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1830s

An 1834 fire destroyed the market, and leapt across wooden stairs to the grand Globe building, gutting the interior.

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The Globe Building

Built in 1827 by Elisha Johnson, the large stone building was erected on the northeast corner of Water Street and Main Street and cut into numerous “apartments” for tradespeople. Positioned over the powerful currents of the Genesee, the bottom half of the building was outfitted with waterwheels which powered many massive machines of industry in the above apartments.

Despite being originally built of stone, the illustrious Globe Building was highly prone to fires. Conflagrations twice struck at the Globe in the decade after its construction, destroying many livelihoods in the process. Nascent industries set to make a name for Rochester instead ended up with destroyed machines, and hopefully an insurance payout–if the tenant was given to foresight.

After the first fire on January 25, 1834, the Main Street facing side of the Globe Building was refaced in brick.

In 1837, another disasterous fire struck the Main Street Bridge and the Globe Building:

The great amount of damage caused by this fire necessitated a level of repair to the abutments and piers that amounted to the construction of a new bridge.

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Third Bridge: 1838

Constructed of wood like its predecessor–save two stone piers–this bridge would last until 1855, at which point it was a shambolic mess. Planks came off with regularity as heavy trucking carts crossed the Genesee, leaving great gaps in the roadway. A crumbling eastern bank abutment had been scraped out and scoured by floodwaters over years past, leaving that side of the bridge dangerously unsupported.

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1840s

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1850s

The above drawing would be the final graven image of the third wooden Main Street Bridge, composed during the very same year the council solicited plans for a stone-and-iron bridge at the site.

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Present Bridge: 1857

The stone bridge at Main Street was completed in August of 1857, to much fanfare and celebration.

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1860s

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The Ocumpaugh Building

Familiar names begin to occupy buildings along the sides of the Main Street Bridge. Edmund Ocumpaugh came to Rochester in 1858 to open a gents’ furnishing store for Danforth & Hart. It didn’t work out, but Ocumpaugh decided to get into the business himself, and he began selling clothes at No. 10 Main Street Bridge in 1861. The highly-visible and recognizable “OCUMPAUGH” sign was painted on the back of the building, to be seen in photographs and drawings of the bridge for the rest of its existence.

The below 1862 ad from the Union Advertiser portrays Nos. 8 and 10 on the Main Street Bridge as it appeared in 1862. We can see that Number 8 on the left side is Adam & Fairman, a clothier. Number 10 on the right side is the shop of Edmund Ocumpaugh, who was to become a very prominent clothier. At this point Ocumpaugh had only been in business on the bridge a single year, but they would eventually take over the entirety of this building, and then some.

The below shows Edmund Ocumpaugh’s building as it would appear in 1899.

The Ocumpaugh building would take on numerous important roles throughout history; Rochester’s YMCA began in a room in its attics around 1877, as noted in the photo above; the first Bell telephone exchange also operated in these attics in 1879.

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Great Flood: 1865

The 17th of March, 1865 witnessed a highly destructive flood as meltwater freshets met bridge archways clogged with timber and detritus. The Main Street Bridge, its own arches packed with refuse, was quickly flooded by the rising river.

Floodwaters rushed onto East Main and Buffalo Streets and their respective tributary streets, undermining buildings, scouring the unpaved roadways, and tossing streetcars like corks.

The tool foundry of David R. Barton at the southwest end of the bridge, home to the company since 1832, was destroyed utterly by the turbulent waters, which undermined its foundations and caused the large manufacturing building to collapse.

In the above, one can see heavy Medina stone pavers on the bridge shifted about like wooden building blocks in the wake of a child’s careless play.

Repairs were undertaken swiftly.

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1870s

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1880s

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1890s

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The Democrat & Chronicle Building

One of the more prominent buildings on the Main Street Bridge was the Democrat & Chronicle Building. The Democrat & Chronicle coalesced from two earlier newspapers; the Daily Democrat & The Chronicle. The presses of Democrat & Chronicle were located in a building fronting on Graves Street; the rest of the building was built over the river, parallel to the bridge. This was known as the Rochester Printing Company.

The Democrat & Chronicle would purchase buildings on the south side of the Main Street Bridge, and renovate them into a single headquarters building for the newspaper. On Halloween of 1893, the Democrat and Chronicle moved into their new building on the Main Street Bridge, connected to the old Rochester Printing Company building on Graves Street by elevator and walkway. The building’s facade was a twin-peaked Queen Anne style with two sets of four-storey bay windows. This is how the Democrat & Chronicle building would appear until another renovation in 1922.

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The 1900s

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1910s

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1913 Flood & Riverbed Deepening

In 1913, an enormous flood broke the banks of the Genesee River, filling the adjacent streets and damaging massive amounts of property and infrastructure. The central commercial district was hit especially hard, with Front Street and the Four Corners area experiencing heavy inundation.

In response to the menace of flooding, a plan was made to excavate the bed of the Genesee River, increasing the depth of its flow and lessening the turbulence of its waters. Cofferdams were built to create dry areas of riverbed, where explosive charges were set inside drilled boreholes. The resulting loose chunks of rock were carted away by use of train tracks set up on the riverbed.

One of the numerous men involved in this intensive operation was professional diver, Patrick Welch, who we met in a previous Gonechester post.

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Late 1910s

Visible above is a billboard advertisement for “Orange Blossom Cigars”, a product by P. Meagher & Sons.

The billboard appeared to be removed by the next year.

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1920s

At this time, 1922, the Democrat and Chronicle building on the south side of the Main Street Bridge received a shiny new white stone façade with doric columns:

The above sketch has a placeholder for the eventual inscription that would be carved at the building’s highest reaches; the final inscription would be an excerpt from Lord Byron’s “Don Juan”, to wit:

Without, or with, offence to friends or foes,
I sketch your world exactly as it goes.

https://www.online-literature.com/byron/don-juan/9/

The Democrat & Chronicle would remain in these offices until 1959, when the paper would be moved to The Gannett Building on Exchange Street.

I included the below article because it’s one of those delightful slice-of-life anecdotes which makes history feel like a living, breathing, accessible human experience. The back side of the buildings overhanging the Main Street Bridge were apparently a popular gathering spot for teeming masses of seagulls, to whom workers enjoying their lunches would toss scraps from the balconies.

It’s appealing; I can absolutely see myself engaging in this pastime, yeeting crusts of sandwich bread from my nook over the river and watching the gulls tangle with each other over them.

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1930s

For four weeks, a cat named Smarty haunted the abutments on the south side of the bridge. Desperate attempts were made by the Humane Society to extract the feline from its entrapped location before it starved to death.

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1940s: A Decade of Flame

The decade of the 1940s on the Main Street Bridge was marked by frequent conflagrations, causing an enormous amount of havoc, property damage, and outright destruction. Full buildings abutting the bridge were lost to blazes during this time.

Dangerous as the fires themselves were, the precarious ruins left over from their destructive sweep posed a hazard as well, especially to those workers whose job it was to raze the ruined structures which dangled perilously over the river.

In 1947, a new steel-framed building known as the “Hurwitz Building” was constructed in the gap resulting from the 1941 fire.

When completed in 1948, the Hurwitz Building became home to Monroe Billiards:

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1950s

The evocative architectural forms of the Main Street Bridge continued to be a source of artistic inspiration for artists. Below, a series of paintings by German-born painter Kurt Feuerherm interpret the bridge.

Adding to seagulls and stray cats, the Main Street Bridge menagerie at one point included a pair of beavers who made themselves at home in the piles of vegetation wedged beneath the bridge’s arches.

I came across this photo above in my research but was unfortunately unable to ascertain its provenance. Based on the color grading and the presence of the Democrat & Chronicle sign it appears to be in the 1950s.

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1960s

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The Razing

Come the mid-1960s, urban renewal fever had taken Rochester’s city government by storm. Areas of clustered old buildings, prone to fire and home to pests, were targeted for removal, despite historical interest. The Genesee Crossroads Project in particular turned its gaze to the waterfront of the Genesee River, seeking to increase commercial traffic to the city center by way of opening up and beautifying the formerly-thriving business center.

On the chopping block were the buildings along either side of the Main Street Bridge. Considered by many to be a jumbled architectural eyesore blocking the river’s natural beauty. As a major tenet of the Crossroads Project was the aggrandizement of the Genesee River, it was decided they would have to go.

The below cropped image from an article about the Crossroads Project shows the arched “ribs” which supported the removed buildings on either side of the Main Street Bridge:

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1970s

The first decade fully without the buildings on the Main Street Bridge in nearly a century and a half. That’s a hell of a thing to consider! Clear of any excess construction, we’re free to see the elegant stonework arches that make up the bridge, long-obscured by overhanging structures and elongated piers. It’s almost shocking how small, how narrow, how short this passage over the Genesee River really turns out to be, bereft of its architectural icing. And yet, in its simplicity, it is beautiful–a purpose-built span of stone affording the passer-by enticing views of the river below.

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Albert Paley Railings

In 1986, artist Albert Paley was selected to create ornate sculptural railings for the Main Street Bridge.

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Since Then

The bridge has been a cultural site of party and protest for many decades. Visible enough for an evocative act of social defiance in the name of the Arts, it’s also a conveniently large and scenic spot–when closed to traffic–for a culinary or cultural festival.

As of 2022, the bridge underwent one of its most massive aesthetic alterations since the Paley rails themselves were installed: the railings were painted a much more saturated, deep blue, which I honestly really dislike! But who cares what I think, I’m just a blogger.

So here we are today: a bridge clear of buildings, with beautifully-designed railing painted a somewhat distasteful color. Like most things, Rochester found a way to make a culturally-interesting location neutrally pleasant, spruced it up a bit, then made the best element of it the worst it could be. But that’s what we’ve come to expect, isn’t it? Why should it be any different? If it were, it wouldn’t really be our hometown.

So next time you cross over the Main Street Bridge, take a look down at the Genesee. Recall how many generations went by without the same opportunity. Then think about all the opportunities for scenic views that they enjoyed which you never will. It’ll balance out to kind of a smug misery. That’s Rochester, NY, baby!

Good night!

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