the Way of the Turtle

A Brief Visit to the Ashantee Five Arch Bridge & Ashantee Falls
Saturday, March 27, 2010

Ashantee is a small town south of Rochester near Avon, noted in Rich and Sue Freeman's 200 Waterfalls in Central & Western NY as being the site of a man-made waterfall over a dam and the cut stone Five Arch Bridge which was built in 1857 to carry the Genesee Valley Railroad across Conesus Creek. At its peak the bridge carried 13 trains a day across the creek, before many of the local railroads were shut down in the mid- and late-1900's. This line was closed in 1941 and now the large stone bridge is part of a small park. Today the creek was absolutely roaring under it, which precluded getting a closer look from the creekbed.

Across the road and upstream slightly water was also roaring over the dam, but we were only able to catch glimpses of the waterfall, since both sides of the creek are private property - a residence on one bank (complete with a bright red water wheel near creek level) and a sprawling antique shop on the other. The guidebook recommends viewing the falls from the windows of the antique shop, but they were closed, so we had to settle for brief glimpses of the creek. At least we had a nice view of the almost-full moon high in the sky...

JMH