- Back when the Eiffel Tower was built, it wasn't meant to last.

It was built for the World's Fair in 1889 and only had a permit of 20 years, meaning by 1909, it was scheduled to be dismantled and melted down for scrap.

But Gustave Eiffel, he knew how to pivot.

He saved the tower by repurposing it, turning it into a scientific laboratory, running experiments with wind gauges to study air resistance.

Then came World War I. He offered it up to the French military.

It was a giant antenna.

With telegraphy still in its early days, it was used to intercept German messages and jam communications in return.

But what if it was never repurposed?

Paris might not have what it's most known for today.

So what does that have to do with bikepacking across New York State?

Well, on this episode of "Rolling Thru," we stop by something right here, also completed in 1889, that thanks to being repurposed, was saved and for the better.

Also on this episode, we'll ride by one of the oldest continuously inhabited streets in the United States and get out to some bucolic country that's headed your way right now.

This is "Rolling Thru," a bicycle travel show.

(bright music) We're leaving Kingston this morning and heading south.

It's a cold one, but the scenery does a decent job of making us forget that.

This first stretch takes us along the Shawangunk Ridge.

The locals sometimes just call it the Gunks, and it has long been a place of meaning for the Munsee Lenape, who moved through these ridge lines for hunting, gathering, and seasonal life.

Centuries later, as development pressures crept in, conservationists stepped up to protect large parts of the ridge, recognizing its natural beauty and its deep history.

And you can really feel that out here on the trail.

It's green, serene, and easily some of the best riding we've had so far.

And while we're on the topic of looking back, we stop for a breather in New Paltz, home to one of the oldest preserved streets in the country.

The Huguenot Street Historic District dates back to 1678, when French Huguenot refugees fleeing religious persecution settled here on land acquired from the local Esopus Munsee people.

But not long after the settlement, conflict and colonial pressure forced the Esopus Munsee people out of the region.

Some of the stone houses you see today have been standing since those early days, making this one of the oldest collections of homes in the United States.

Now it's preserved as a living history site, and it tells a fuller story of the area, from early settlement and religious refuge to the deeper, often overlooked history of indigenous displacement in Hudson Valley.

We coast down out of New Paltz on a long rolling hill, which honestly feels like it goes on forever.

This stretch has been one of my favorites of the trip so far, so much so I can't really contain it.

Damn, I love this state.

And that feeling carries us right into our next stop.

And lucky for us, it's just ahead and part of the trail.

Small in distance, but tall in presence.

I'm at the Walkway Over the Hudson.

This is one of the longest pedestrian bridges in the country, but it used to be an abandoned railroad track.

I'm here to find out how community vision turned this into one of New York's most unique state parks.

Brian, the views keep getting better from my interviews.

And you're at the top now, and I guess we're literally at the top.

- Yeah, we are at the top, 212 feet above the river.

- 212 feet above the Hudson River.

- Yes, we are.

- It hasn't always been a park though, has it?

- No, this hasn't.

This actually opened in 1889 as a Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge.

It was a freight train mostly, but it also carried people across the bridge.

It was the longest bridge in the world when it opened.

The train began to die down around the 1950s, and in 1974, there was a fire, which caused the closure of the bridge.

And it sat dormant and dilapidated from 1974 until the early 2000s, when the group began dreaming up the idea of the Walkway Over the Hudson, the park you see today.

We opened officially as the Walkway Over the Hudson, as the New York State Park in 2009.

Going 16 years now as the longest elevated pedestrian bridge in the world.

- [Pat] So you knew this bridge for a while as an eyesore.

- It was.

It was just a burnt-out structure that, you know, as a local resident, that we would drive underneath when we were driving up and down Route 9 in Dutchess County there.

It was just an eyesore for the state, for the community.

- There was no connectivity between the two counties?

- No, not for pedestrians, not for bikes, not for the outdoor activities that we see here today on a beautiful Sunday morning.

It's now, you know, we see over half a million people a year use this bridge for all sorts of activities.

We are open 365.

There are challenges in the wintertime.

We have to clear the snow off the bridge to make it safe for people.

It's cold, it's windy, but you're still 212 feet above the river, and people are looking for a place to get out even in the wintertime.

And seeing the river frozen is pretty impressive as well, seeing the ice form on the river.

And people enjoy it just as much.

- So what was it like to get something like this built?

- Funding, obviously, when you're dealing with something this large, was an issue.

Structurally, making sure that it was sound and able to be reused for something like this.

It took a long time.

A lot of people contributed to the transformation, from the railroad bridge that was burned out to the state park we see today.

And then over time, it's evolved into what we have today with full bathrooms.

We have an elevator now, which connects to the waterfront in Poughkeepsie.

The train station is right off, you know, a couple blocks from the elevator.

So people can come up from New York City, walk a few blocks, get to the elevator, and ride up to the top of the bridge.

Accessibility has been one of the main focuses of the bridge.

The entire walkway is ADA accessible.

We have a tram that is operated by our friends group, which allows mobility-challenged individuals access to the structure.

And it's just been such a boon for everybody in this area.

It's a great use of industrial-era infrastructure.

And to see what it's become today, I can't think of anything like it.

And it's still a pretty impressive place.

- Yeah, I have to agree with that.

This is really impressive.

The walkway shows us that with a little imagination, anything can be given a second life.

It's a powerful lesson in reusing and reimagining the world around us.

It really is pretty remarkable riding over the river at this height, and I'm glad our next stop isn't far.

This gives us a chance to take it all in.

We cruise along the length of the walkway and drop down into Poughkeepsie, a city that's seen its share of ups and downs.

It was once a major industrial hub along the Hudson, with factories and IBM driving jobs here.

But as that industry disappeared, a lot went with it.

Now, you can feel it shifting again, new life along the waterfront and ideas about what this next chapter could be.

And perhaps, it starts with keeping things local, even something as big as the economy.

This local shop in Poughkeepsie, New York has a solution: ethical handmade clothing.

- We have a three-story building here in the old center of Poughkeepsie.

We call it a micro department store.

(laughs) - [Pat] It's a great concept.

- I think it came out of, like, well, we have to compete with online shopping, and we really want to bring people back into the store.

So where are we at this moment?

And I think we need to offer more than just shopping.

We try to do as much as possible from the Hudson Valley.

So we have a coffee shop when you walk in, and it's all farm to table.

Everything we do there, it feeds our communities.

- Yeah.

Could you quickly explain slow fashion and your approach to it?

- [Jillian] When we started the brand, we decided to focus on one material, that being canvas.

- Why is that?

- Because we saw it could be used in so many different products.

A lot of the waste that happens in the industry is because you're changing fabrics every season and you're left with excess.

Slow fashion is lasting and sustainable and not changing every season.

Building product and building it in a way that people want to keep it for longer and it holds up longer.

I think a good design lasts.

So that's what we're always looking towards.

Like, well, how do we make this design work well?

And it's not just the aesthetics of it, but how is it constructed?

We like to say it's clothing that maybe you found in your grandparents' closet.

- Yeah.

- And you still love its style.

- It's timeless.

- We want to solve our problems.

We have to get close to them.

And what that meant to me was outsourcing takes our eyes away from what we do.

And we're left with all of these issues, whether it be disposing of clothes or this whole disposable economy because we don't know who made it.

And we don't value it in the same way that we would if we knew our friends and neighbors were making these things.

We may not want to throw them out.

I think we've lost a little bit the understanding of the value of keeping money in the community.

And we keep looking at the problems in our communities and thinking about how we can solve them, but not thinking about the money chain.

All these companies have been scaled so that no matter where you're traveling to, you end up seeing the same stores.

And you really want to have these stories of, I traveled here and I got this because it reminds you of that trip.

And this is part of the thing I love about clothes.

It becomes part of the story of your life.

It travels with you as you age and as you move around.

You've got these things that you're carrying with you and you put on your body.

And I think sometimes we just write it off as being fashion is frivolous, but it really is not.

It's huge.

- I have a T-shirt.

It doesn't even fit me anymore, but I got it at a Bob Dylan concert, my first ever concert.

And I won't get rid of it because I have- - Yeah, it's a part of the story of your life.

I love that.

- Yeah, exactly.

When you buy local and support slow fashion, you're not just buying a piece of clothing.

You're supporting a more just and sustainable economy.

It's a small change that can make a big difference.

Now, Greg and I settle in for a 24-mile ride to our next stop, but it won't be the quickest because we're climbing.

It's a long, steady grade, only about 1%, but it adds up over a thousand feet of elevation, enough to keep the gears low and the legs working.

This stretch runs alongside the Appalachian Trail, so you can see thru-hikers passing by on their way to or from Georgia to Maine.

And for a climb like this, I'm glad it's smooth.

No technical features like what the hikers are dealing with out there.

After grinding it out for a while, we finally roll in to meet Dylan Carey with Parks & Trails New York.

They're a statewide nonprofit working to expand and protect trails like this, connecting communities, improving access, and making it easier for more people to get out, enjoy, and ride.

- We are dedicated to the protection of New York's network of public lands.

The park system gets over 85 million visits a year.

And we also work to advocate for an interconnected network of greenway trails across the state, trails such as the Empire State Trail, which is the spine of the state's greenway network.

- It really is a gem of the state, I have to say.

- It really is, and it really speaks to the vision of those, who over the last 30-plus years, have identified that there's so many opportunities to connect these abandoned former railroad corridors, the corridors along the old canal, other places, to give people safe places to walk and to bike and to create this network that really now extends from New York City to Buffalo and up to Canada.

And, you know, that 750-mile network that is the Empire State Trail, it's now the longest statewide trail network in the United States.

We have incredible diversity of trails too.

You've got the trails that go along old canals that are just beautiful.

You've got trails like this that are former rail corridors, and they all connect to so many other beautiful trails in and around our state park system.

- And endless miles.

- And endless miles, yep.

- Selfishly, can you guys look into connecting the Southern Tier south of Letchworth State Park?

- We're working on it, we're working on it.

And eventually, what you'd have is this giant loop that'd run from Buffalo south to Olean, back up to Rochester, and then back on the Empire State Trail around to Buffalo.

When completed, that's going to be a huge international draw because you're connecting so many great destinations.

You'll be able to get people to Niagara Falls and then to bike from Niagara Falls to Letchworth.

That'd be incredible.

- Not just to mention the boon to the local economies of, you know, just like the little coffee shops, the cafes, the little sweet shops.

- It really is such a huge impact having greenway trails in communities because you do see those impacts.

Like, you know, there's this saying that touring cyclists like you're doing are considered wallets on wheels because, you know, per person, they tend to spend a lot more in communities.

That really is one of the smartest ways that local economic development professionals can seek to attract business to their communities.

- Yeah.

- And we're starting a project now, actually, to put a number on some of that impact, to quantify what the impact, the economic impact of the Empire State Trail is.

It's my guess that the Empire State Trail has the biggest economic impact of any trail system in the United States.

We'll see.

We'll see if that is borne out.

But we are really excited for that.

- I could believe it though.

Just going on our journey, we met so many people that were traveling here from all different states.

We met people from the Netherlands.

We met people from North Carolina.

And the one unifying thing was like, yeah, we wanted to go across New York State.

- And I think it speaks to the fact that New York has some incredible combinations of, you know, obviously New York City is a huge attraction, a place that people are going to travel into, but then you can get from there and travel up to Niagara Falls.

You can pass along the route of the Erie Canalway Trail.

You never know, maybe you'll experience one of the local kinds of cuisine that in so many places are known for.

And you just, you can learn the, you can learn more.

- Tomato pie in Amsterdam.

- Yeah.

- Every city across New York has its dish.

- Yeah.

- Chicken wings, Buffalo.

Garbage plate, Rochester.

Syracuse, salt potatoes.

The mozzarella sticks in Albany.

- Yeah.

- And you could go- - Chicken riggies and the Utica greens in Utica.

- Yeah, chicken riggies.

You could go and just have yourself a gastronomic tour if you want.

- Yeah.

- And you can really make it your own.

- You can make it your own.

You can do it that way.

You can learn about history.

There's so many different stories to be learned along the trail.

- Yep.

And it's all there if you just get outside and enjoy your parks and trails.

- You just got to get out and do it.

- Dylan heads off, and Greg and I push along the trail.

The sun begins to drop late in the day.

After learning how these trails get built, you start to open your eyes a little.

You notice the land around you more.

And with that kind of awareness, it connects you to what's here, which is exactly why we're heading to our last stop of the day.

It's a place that's teaching people to reconnect to the land they live on.

♪ I'm moving out to the country, it sings to me ♪ I'm at Tilly Foster Farm in Brewster, New York to find out how they're teaching people where their food comes from and why sustainability matters.

- Tilly Foster was purchased by Putnam County in about 2001.

It was an opportunity that the county had using New York City watershed funds to help preserve open space.

We have farm animals, of course, which is a big draw to the public to come.

We have kids throughout the day with their parents coming around to visit our different farm animals.

And we grow vegetables.

We have bees.

We do have some bee classes to produce honey.

And we have fish in our pond.

We have some people here fishing tonight, which we stocked and redid a few years ago.

We have a Cornell Cooperative Extension doing a shiitake mushroom farm in our woods.

And we're trying to be the best stewards of this land and do the best we can with it.

An interesting thing about Tilly Foster Farm, because we used New York City watershed funds to purchase it, we were required to put a conservation easement on the farm.

So we have an agricultural easement on the farm that dictates what we can and can't do on the property, as well as they work with us to formulate our best farm practices and help write our whole farm plan.

So everything we do in the farming aspect of things is for water quality and soil quality and how to enhance that.

- So if somebody didn't know what a municipal farm is, can you explain it?

- So the property is owned by the taxpayers of Putnam County, and we are the stewards of it.

We're here to try to give the public reasons to want to come on the farm and use their property.

We have a concert series throughout the summer where people can come up.

I think what Tilly Foster offers that's different than other farms is there's a little thing for everybody.

You might not want to come to see the farmhouse, but you might want to come see the concert.

You might want to come to the restaurant, but you couldn't care less about coming and fishing in the pond or hiking in the hiking trails.

But there's a lot going on where there's something for everybody throughout Putnam County to be able to come and enjoy their property.

- It's a real community gathering space.

- It really is.

- And what do you most appreciate about the community aspect of the farm?

- My favorite part is watching the families and the kids come onto the farm.

I mean, if you come up here at lunchtime on a Wednesday afternoon and you see the small kids running around the farm animals and the parents walking around with 'em, this may be their first experience of seeing farm animals.

We're an hour from New York City.

You know, this isn't farm country like it probably was 100 years ago.

But it gives them the opportunity to kind of give that small experience of the farming life that the kids upstate grew up with.

We mowed our hay, we baled our hay, we feed our hay to the animals.

We planted, we started seeds in our greenhouse, we planted the squash plants, and we harvested bushels of squash, so many that we're giving them away to the food banks.

Our bees, you know, they just extracted the honey from the beehives last week, and we got jars of honey now that we can share with people.

So that's the rewarding part, what it gives back to us.

- From the soil to the dinner plate, this farm teaches us that food is a tool for education and community.

It's a great reminder to reconnect with the land and what's on our plate.

♪ And your last day's light til well after ♪ The word that keeps coming back today is repurposing.

We've seen it in old infrastructure turned into parks and trails, buildings given new life, and even in farming, like at Tilly's, because repurposing at its core is about care.

It's about valuing what we've built enough to keep it around.

It's something my grandma taught me.

She lived through the Great Depression, and there was a saying back then, one worth keeping in mind today.

Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.

And after a day like today, "make it do" feels worth the try.

On the next and last episode of "Rolling Thru," we arrive in New York City and find all that it has to offer.

♪ Cheap thrills ♪ ♪ And escape for a moment ♪ ♪ It's time that we cure with the world ♪ ♪ Cheap thrills ♪ (light music) ♪ Fool me once, fool me twice ♪ ♪ Do it everyday ♪ ♪ Always fun, always nice ♪ ♪ Always seemed out of place ♪ ♪ It's just hard from the start ♪ ♪ To lose your face in the crowd ♪ ♪ It's all right, I won't fight ♪ ♪ There's no way I've found (indistinct) ♪ ♪ It's time to cure with the world ♪