The old bridge had steel arches and wood plank construction, and also fresh in my mind, was a wooden sidewalk on the up river side with a the arches and a steel safety railing separating the pedestrians from the auto traffic.

My mother and father, Dennis and Elizabeth McKillip Keegan Riley, purchased the house at 5 Pine St., next to the bridge in 1942 for $1,700. There was a two car garage at the bottom of the driveway with a nice story and a half apartment over the garage. Earl Colby, a WWII veteran and active in the Veteran’s Club, lived there for many years.

There were nine of us in the family which included my grandfather Riley and there was plenty of room with five bedrooms, a full basement but no central heat. There were three coal stoves with a coal storage bin under that back porch which was accessed by a short ladder. The coal hods had to be filled daily and lifted up to the porch floor, which was my job.

Dad had left the Oseetah Dairy farm in Ray Brook and went to work at Trudeau Sanatorium. All of this family history was recalled recently as I was talking to people at a fund-raiser for Historic Saranac Lake at the Amy and Roger Catania’s beautiful home on Park Avenue…talk about history … the original home of Dr. Carl Merkel … Dr. Dave Merkel’s father.

My father started at Trudeau driving the laundry, food and furniture truck, involving all of those jobs. Furniture was moved as cottages changed patients, the huge laundry produced what seemed like tons of bedding and three times a day hot food had to be delivered to a bunch of those cottages.

He wasn’t paid very much, maybe a hundred bucks a month, and he worked seven days a week, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Remember, he had been a farmer all his life up until that time, and he said many times, “it was the easiest job I ever had.”

Oh, yes …the Pine Street Bridge

The 1987 Enterpris — by Megan Schwarz:

“If it isn’t one thing, it’s another.

Flashback

“The Pine Street Bridge was officially re-opened for traffic Tuesday. And although many motorists are thrilled, some neighborhood residents are concerned about the return of increased traffic.

” ‘It’s nice, but from Route 3 [Bloomingdale Avenue] it looks like a parkway,’ said Steven Lenhart of Helen Street. ‘Traffic, is flying and we are hopeful we’ll see radar,’ said Sharon O’Brien.

“They felt a stop sign at the corner of Helen and Pine Street would slow traffic down and make it safer for children at play. Aside from the speed hazard, however, many are happy that the bridge is finally finished. ‘We are thrilled’, O’Brien said.

“Amy Carroll, who lives on Pine Street, was also happy to see the bridge completed, – with one reservation.

“‘The only thing that worries me is the cars go awfully fast. There are a lot of pre-schoolers in the neighborhood, so I just hope people will obey the speed limits,’ she said.

“Carol Monroe, who lives on Stevenson Lane, [in the stone house next to the bridge] is glad to see the construction crews gone but is worried about increased traffic. ‘I don’t look forward to that,’ she said.

” ‘We’re tickled to death, I’m glad it’s open and about time too, I always used it and I always will use that bridge,’ said Robert Hagar, who lives at the corner of Helen and Pine Streets.

“Hagar is not alone. ‘The amount of people who want to save time by using that bridge is enormous,’

St. Armand Supervisor Joyce Morency said during the opening ceremony for the bridge at 2 p.m. Tuesday.

The bridge was constructed by the New York State Department of Transportation at a cost of $600,000.

“‘Now I’ll race to my car,’ she said, hoping to be the first to cross the newly opened bridge. She was not the first, however.

“She was beaten by Dick Trudeau in his gravel truck. Trudeau had already stationed himself in position near the bridge, and after the ribbon was cut he went across.

“Trudeau, who worked on the bridge, ‘really wanted to be the first one across,’ according to Ron Schaffer, the engineer in charge for the DOT.”

[Dick Trudeau is home recuperating from an automobile accident a few weeks ago. A family member said he is doing well and on the mend from a concussion suffered in the accident. You can call and wish him well at 518-891-2298.]