1955 Hyde Park (Swinging) Foot Bridge over Kiskiminetas River at Leechburg, PA

(Satellite, 116 photos)

Street View, Oct 2023

Uncovering PA posted four photos with the comment: "This 1,200 foot [366m] swinging bridge in western PA is a ton of fun to cross: https://uncoveringpa.com/hyde-park-walking-bridge."

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The Pennsy had squeezed tracks in both sides of the river. And this bridge connected those two routes. But the bridge had already been converted to a footbridge before 1953. I looked at older topo maps to see when it became a footbridge, but none of them even showed this bridge.

(I should have read the reference, uncoveringpa, first: "The bridge was originally constructed in 1886 for the local railroad but was destroyed in May 1889 during the same flooding that caused the Johnstown Flood. The bridge was rebuilt but was eventually abandoned in 1904.")

1953/55 Vandergrift and 1954/56 Leechburg Quads @ 24,000

The bridge has three towers because it reused three Pennsy piers.

uncoveringpa
"The bridge is built on piers that were originally constructed in 1886 for a railroad bridge."
"This bridge is 600 feet [183m] long and sits about 20 feet [6m] above the river, making it a very impressive bridge and almost certainly the longest swinging bridge in PA....The first Hyde Park Walking Bridge was constructed of wood in 1920. At some point, likely due to wood’s deterioration, a metal suspension bridge was constructed in the same spot in 1955."