Observers were amazed to see the giant jig made by a contractor so the anchor bolts on the Bramley Mountain Fire Tower were positioned exactly right. Eighteen-inch holes were drilled into the bedrock and six-foot anchor bolts were inserted and epoxied in. Rebar cages were also drilled and epoxied into the bedrock before forms were constructed around them. Concrete was mixed and poured using almost 80 bags of a special concrete mix. An independent testing company tested the concrete and the placement of all the bolts and rebar. Additional testing was done at seven days on samples of that concrete, and then approval from the town code enforcement officer will be needed to start the assembly process.
Bramley Mountain Fire Tower is the only fire tower in the United States that had been removed, stored for years, and then reassembled in the exact same spot, saving a piece of local history.
It is hoped construction will be complete and the tower open to the public by the end of October. It has been seven years since that first conversation with Tom Clark and with the DEP, but soon a new fire tower will stand in the Catskills.
