The Psychological Barrier of the Bridge

  |  July 22, 2013

This is a guest post from reader Duke Dang. 

Photo courtesy of Rob Shannon

Photo courtesy of Rob Shannon

When my partner and I started looking for a house in Hudson, our realtor realized quickly that we weren’t going to find our dream house there. She had the foresight to take us across the Rip Van Winkle Bridge to Catskill, just 5 miles away from Hudson. We ended up buying a 1890 turnkey and gut-renovated Victorian on an 1/8th of an acre, 2 minute walk to the river, 5 minute walk to the movie theater, and 10 minute walk to the Thomas Cole House, for a lot less than what it would have cost in Hudson. A little over a year later we couldn’t be more happy.  What we didn’t know was what a hurdle our “Walk Way Over the Hudson,” otherwise knows as the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, can be.

Before buying our house we asked friends in Kinderhook what they thought of our future home. Their response: “You want to be closer to the train station than that; check out this house in Kinderhook.” We mapped it out. Kinderhook to Hudson: 20 miles. Catskill to Hudson: 5 miles. It became obvious the bridge isn’t a physical barrier — everyone drives upstate and it doesn’t matter to me if I drive a mile over a bridge or a mile on a road — but a psychological barrier.

It’s because of this that we were so heartened to see a new campaign to promote Catskill, especially to people who love Hudson but can’t seem to work up the enthusiasm for the 10-minute drive across the bridge. “It’s only a River. Get over it,” the billboards read. “Not the Catskills. Catskill.” 

We love where we are, at the crossroads of Columbia and Greene Counties and the Thruway, where we can walk to the creek and river and rent a Kayak and paddle to the Audubon reserve where we see Bald Eagles. We can zip over to Hudson for the train, the culture, the food, but still have our affordable and beautiful country home. So we wonder, why it is so difficult to do as the sign says and “get over it?” It can’t be the $1.25 toll, can it?

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