The Landmark Society’s 2014 Preservation Awards will be presented this year at a special event on Sunday, November 16 at 3:00 p.m. in Rochester’s historic City Hall, the spectacular Richardsonian Romanesque landmark located downtown at 30 Church Street. The Awards are given each year to individuals and organizations in our nine-county area who have made outstanding efforts in the preservation of their homes, historic properties, and landscapes. In anticipation of the upcoming Awards Ceremony we will be featuring some of this year’s award winners.

The Award of Merit is for the sympathetic rehabilitation of an historic  building or structure in our 9-county region completed within the past two years.

North Wayneport Road  Bridge:                                                                                   North Wayneport Road, town of Macedon, Wayne County

                                                          Image courtesy of the Landmark Society

Located on the Erie Canal in the tiny hamlet of Wayneport, just over the Monroe County line, the North Wayneport Road Bridge was built in 1912 as part of the massive Barge Canal project, which updated and expanded that historic waterway. The single-span bridge was erected by the Owego Bridge Company of Owego, New York and features a variation of the Baltimore (aka Petit) style, through-truss design.

Originally used by horse-drawn vehicles and early 20^th-century motorcars, the bridge now accommodates a steady volume of local traffic, in combination with the hikers, cyclists, and tourists, who travel the adjacent Erie Canal Towpath Trail.  The recent rehabilitation project was completed by the New York State Department of Transportation.  Replacement of major elements such as floor beams, grate decking, truss bearings and gusset plates, as well as painting the floor system and lower sections was completed.  An increasingly rare example of truss bridge design, the North Wayneport Road Bridge is an important contributing element in the historic Erie Canal system, which has been listed in the State and National Registers of Historic Places.