After several months of work, a new portion of the Keene and Manchester rail line trail has been completed, opening a new trail from Hancock to Harrisville.
“The project represents an extraordinary community investment in the region’s recreational resources,” said Jeremy Willson, executive director of the Harris Center for Conservation Education, which has been working with the Harrisville Trail Committee to clear new portions of the former rail bed.
The newest section of trail, which was dedicated and officially opened on Sunday, is 1.5 miles long, running from Jaquith Road in Harrisville to Jaquith Road in Hancock, and had a particular challange – bridging a 40-foot gap in the trail over Jaquith Brook.
The abutments where a bridge once stood were still in place, but the bridge was gone.
The abutments are a remnant of the area’s former use as a railroad, operated by the Manchester and Keene Railroad since 1878, providing train service between Keene and Nashua. The line was taken over by the Boston and Main Railroad in 1893, but declined during the 1930s. In 1936, the Great New England Flood damaged many trestles, and it wasn’t cost-effective enough to repair them, and the railroad died, 58 years after it had been built.
Closing the gap would be one of the biggest pieces of the endeavor to open the trail – but the Harrisville Rails to Trails group already had the solution in hand.
A truss bridge, over 100 years old, had been donated to the group from a neighboring town, and was just waiting for the right project. The Jaquith section of the trail appeared to be it.
The bridge was put in place in October – along with a second bridge at another spot on the trail – and the trail has been cleared of trees, drainage ditches excavated, the rail bed re-graded, making it officially ready for hikers and other recreational uses.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.