But perhaps the most promising consequence of a meeting this week among state officials and a local group that owns the bridge was the news that the state is committed to helping bring the project to fruition.

Carmella Mantello, head of the Hudson River Valley Greenway, said some officials took a walk on the span Tuesday and then met and ''fleshed out'' several ideas on how to move forward.

Moving forward

''Everyone was in complete consensus that the state agencies are on board to make this a very viable project to move forward,'' Mantello said Wednesday. ''I'm very confident that the project will happen, it's just going to take a long time.''

Tuesday's meeting included Walkway Over the Hudson, the group that owns the span, Greenway officials and representatives of the state Department of Transportation, the Department of Environmental Conservation and the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Mantello said the bridge could be a key link in connecting Greenway trails on both sides of the river.

The bridge was closed after a 1974 fire severely damaged it.

Fred Schaeffer, Walkway Over the Hudson's board chairman, said getting the state officials to visit was a big step forward.

The next step is to get a study done assessing what would be needed to upgrade the span and the related costs, Schaeffer said. The group is seeking to raise $35,000 and secure another $35,000 in the form of a grant from the state Department of State to fund the study, he said.

Mantello said the officials at the meeting will lend their support for the group's grant application.

''Once that is done, it would move very quickly because we then would have a handle on the cost involved,'' Schaeffer said of the study.

''We're firm believers that once people get out on the bridge and see the potential for it, everyone gets behind it.''

And it's that experience the group hopes to rely on in not only attracting financial support from federal, state and local officials, but from the private sector as well.

Officials said the project could be done in phases, with portions of the span being opened as they are completed. Schaeffer said he thought it could be fully open within three to five years, but he'd like to have it open by 2009, at the latest, to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage up the mighty river.

Steve Auerbach, a chiropractor in Highland, was excited by the prospect of the railroad bridge helping to connect trails in the area. Auerbach is a past president of the Highland Rotary, which played a key role in creating the Highland Rail Trail.

''Everybody seems to be getting behind this on both sides of the river,'' Auerbach said. ''It's going to be like the ninth wonder of the world.''