AMSTERDAM — Contractors working on Route 5 in the city of Amsterdam discovered wires from an explosive device during excavation today, city police said.
Crews working on a state Department of Transportation project to realign traffic on Route 5 discovered the wires during excavation across from the Riverfront Center, according to Det. Lt. Sal Megna, of the Amsterdam Police Department.
No explosive devices were observed at the site. The wires likely date back to when the road was first constructed. It was not immediately known if the device had been detonated in the past and the wires left behind or if the device remained under the ground, Megna said.
In February of 1960 Amsterdam’s Evening Recorder newspaper ran a series of, ironically, thirteen photos and captions describing what were then the tentative plans for the state arterial system that was going to lead to the rebirth of the downtown area and create the “New Amsterdam”. Talk of a new arterial system had been floating around for a couple of years by then and it was a foregone conclusion that it would soon be a done deal. Little did anyone realize at that point that it would be well more than a decade before the project was completed, nor the devastating effect it would ultimately have on the city’s traditional business district. Beyond the general east-west and north-south arterial corridors, little of the original proposal made the translation from paper to reality intact – Division Street did not become the westbound arterial, the southbound arterial did not cross the Mohawk on the rebuilt 1916 river bridge, East and West Main Streets did not remain a main artery through the city.
