announced that it would not promise to repair and use the bridge despite a Connecticut foundation's offer to pay half the repair cost if the bridge were used again. The railroad further said that other work required to make the entire Maybrook route usable would raise the reactivation cost to $45.8 million. Seven years passed; pieces of the bridge's eastern approach viaduct over Poughkeepsie began falling onto U.S. Route 9 below, damaging passing vehicles. In response, the city sued Conrail and forced it to spend $300,000 in 1983 to remove the decking over the superstructure. Conrail then sought to dispose of the unused bridge and eventually abandoned and tore up the Maybrook Line between Hopewell Junction and Maybrook, New York in 1983–1984. Railway Management Associates (1984–1998) Conrail made initial plans to sell the bridge to bridge enthusiast and lawyer Donald L. Pevsner, by an option granted to him on February 1, 1984. Conrail and Central Hudson Gas and Electric were involved with negotiations regarding Central Hudson's two electrical circuits traversing the bridge. The New York State Supreme Court endorsed an agreement in September 1984 whereby Conrail would make every attempt to obtain the permits by May 1985 to demolish the bridge, and Central Hudson would make every attempt to find an alternative route for its circuits by May 1985. Conrail knew that there was lead paint on the bridge, permits for demolition might be difficult to obtain, and demolition costs would be high. Later in 1984, Conrail advised Pevsner to take title of the bridge in a shell corporation, with no assets but the bridge and no funds to pay for necessary insurance and maintenance: the railroad just wanted to be rid of the bridge, whatever the ethics of such disposal. This decision was made personally by then-Conrail Chairman L. Stanley Crane, at a time when Conrail was owned by the U.S. government. Pevsner refused, and let his option expire on November 1, 1984. One day later, on November 2, 1984, Conrail sold the bridge for $1 to a group of investors from St. Davids, Pennsylvania called Railway Management Associates to "get it off the books". The only known member of this investor group was a convicted bank swindler and ex-felon named Gordon Schreiber Miller. For less than a year, Miller collected $10,000 in monthly rent paid by Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation for its two 115,000-volt and 69,000-volt