A Walk Across the St. Lawrence Seaway - Monday, July 29, 2019

In the past week, a number of driving trips back and forth across the 1000 Islands Bridge over the St. Lawrence Seaway to our campsite at Wellesley Island State Park convinced us we needed to walk the bridge over the river. At 11:30 a.m. today, we parked at the North Country Welcome Center on the south side of the bridge. 

North Country Welcome Center

A quick stop in the Welcome Center and we knew it would be a one-half mile walk to the middle of the bridge and one mile, one way if we continued to the end of the bridge on Wellesley Island. It was easy to walk from our parking spot to the entrance of the bridge. 

Thousand Islands Bridge over the
St. Lawrence River

The government entity responsible for
inspecting and maintaining the bridge.

We have now entered the designated pedestrian/bike pathway over the bridge. The driving portion of the bridge is only one narrow lane in each direction with no room for pedestrians or bikes. This is the bridge we took our 5th wheel on to go to Wellesley Island State Park. This is I-81, the main highway to Canada from Watertown, NY. All the semis use this bridge as well.  

Pedestrian/bike path on the bridge.

Even though this looks steep, the climb is actually gradual. I didn't get out of breath at all. The views from the bridge are awesome.

Getting closer to the top.

The St. Lawrence Seaway...no salties or lakies
today. (Hint: Those are the types of ships,
saltwater or freshwater.)

Wow! Looking up at the top.

Checking the east for ships. 

Two jet skis below us.

As we looked down we saw some of the houses along the river near the base of the bridge. Does anyone else see a "face" on the tan house to the left of the blue-roofed house? The windows look like two eyes and a mouth.

Do you see the face on the tan house?

Jet ski on the river.

Looking west we saw pleasure boats, a lighthouse,
and some islands.

Bob at the top of the pedestrian path.

I made it too.

A nice yacht below us.

Zooming in farther west to see more islands.

When we were at the top of the pedestrian path, three guys climbed up from under the bridge. It must have been their lunchtime. I asked them if they work up there every day and they said they do. Their job entails scraping off old paint, putting on new paint, and checking for loose bolts. They help keep the bridge in good shape so it will last a long time. What a view they have from up there. They said they know most of the ships that come through back and forth and they wave at them.

We returned back to the car and went grocery shopping. Then we called it a day and headed back to our 5th wheel. 

Oh, except Bob went out again to fuel up the pick-up truck for our travel day tomorrow. He also walked up the bridge again to watch the sunset. He didn't see any big ships and he said the sunset wasn't all that great so I didn't miss anything by staying in the rig.

Tomorrow, we will have a long travel day to Lake Placid, New York. We will travel along the St. Lawrence Seaway and stop at Massena to see if any ships are going through the locks.

Travel bug out.