Gallery • 3 Photos

Before

Highbrook Highline, the location of the former NYW&B railroad, began as a two-acre stretch of railbed, a large territory of dirt path which comprised of twenty-two percent of the open space in the Village of Pelham. However, over the years, it has been transformed into a lush greenway.

Susan Mutti first had the inspiration for the Highbrook Highline greenway when she attended a book signing in 2011 which featured Joshua David and Robert Hammond, two of the pioneers of the High Line Park of Manhattan. “…We’re in such a congested area,” Mutti said of Pelham. “You think about what this property would mean to people. What people don’t realize is, up here, you get this vista of woods, and that’s what we’re trying to make accessible to the public.”

Sanjay Seecharran completed his Eagle Scout project, after tireless planning, on September 27. He built a footbridge that stretches across one rocky, uneven expanse of railbed, helping park patrons forge an intimate relationship with the land around them, from the safety of the bridge. The addition to the Highbrook Highline was called, by the facebook group “Friends of Highbrook Highline,” “A culmination of planning, engineering, skill-building, craftsmanship, and teamwork.” The group also added that it was “a joy to watch it unfold.”

Seecharran built the footbridge, “to go over the flood zone. When it rains, it floods, and becomes a large, very muddy puddle in which visitors are prone to slip. I built the bridge as an assurance that the visitors of the trail needn’t worry about falling when they’re walking. I decided to do my project at the highbrook highline because I helped Mike Ruggiro and Woods Johnson work on their Eagle Scout projects that were on the highline. I watched the highline evolve from an abandoned and overgrown area into a beautiful community trail. I knew the highline still had some work to be done and I wanted to continue the work on it.”

Seecharran added that he faced, “few challenges, a major one was funding, the parts and the lumber for the bridge was much more expensive then I predicted. I did cost estimates but as the project proceeded and the bridge evolved, more different and specific parts were needed. John Mcclean, from Home Depot was a great help and this project wouldn’t have been completed without him. He donated all the materials I needed for my project and provided me with all the last minute supplies I needed. Another difficulty was the architecture of the bridge, I had to account for the angle of the trail and I had to design a structure that will securely fit on the trail and will allow people to access it safely.”

Gavin Fear’s project entailed installing a water hand-pump and riprap (a stone lining). The water pump filled a divot in the land with water, creating an artificial brook from plumbing, designing, and execution. This project will create a water source for both animals and plants. The “Friends of Highbrook Highline” have also generously commended this project, stating that “This was an advanced installation,” and “we are thrilled with the result.”

Fear’s project went through “many different iterations,” beginning with a plan to “completely redo the upper part of the highline by laying down new soil and replanting greenery surrounding that.” But that changed when “I ran into one big problem with the town board and was forced to go back to the drawing board.”

“During the whole project it took about 10 hours of research, from finding the right materials to trying to come up with a viable way to pull water up in that basin. This time that we put in allowed us to reduce our mistakes down the road and make it a better project,” Fear said.

“The purpose of the riprap is to beautify the High Brook Basin and make the whole area look more appealing overall,” Fear said.  “The purpose of the pump is to provide a water source to the nearby flower beds down the highline. Previously, there had been no easy way to get water down there which is one of the problems my project aimed to fix.”

The bridge was christened with a girl scout moving up ceremony, an event well suited to the Highline, and a tribute to the volunteerism in the community. Once a mere dirt path stretching for many miles across the town, the many eagle scouts of the community have fueled and created with effort, engineering, and persistence this long railway of nature.