The town was established because of a ferry crossing. In 1832 the Delaware Canal opened and the town had another burst of growth. A covered bridge that was built in 1838. This 1904 bridge replaced the covered bridge.
This 577' (176m) long bridge was built by the John A. Roebling's Sons Co. and has a longest span of 200' (61m). "Its design is unusual because it contains multiple, relatively short suspension spans. Most suspension bridges that are familiar today are much larger bridges that contains only two suspension towers." [
HistoricBridges]
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Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission
"Current bridge is the third oldest existing superstructure in the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission’s 20-bridge system....The Commission posts bridge monitors at the bridge on a 24/7 basis to prevent crossings of overweight/oversized vehicles on the unique multi-catenary weight-restricted suspension bridge." |
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Bob Dover posted
The structure of the Reigelsville Suspension Bridge connecting Bucks County, Pennsylvania to Warren County, New Jersey, has cute little oil derrick-shaped towers about 15 feet high sitting on massive white stone piers 30 feet high. The tiny towers straddle the sidewalks on either side of the bridge, seeming to make the sidewalks part of the structure and not an appendage added on to its side. Plaques above the roadway on the suspension towers signify the construction by John A. Roebling’s Sons Company of New York in 1904, in fancy decorative script. At the eastern end, the carved stone date plaque from the original bridge, showing its date of 1837, has been incorporated into the 1904 anchor block. The town of Riegelsville clearly takes pride in being the location of a lovely Roebling bridge. The western approach to the bridge crosses the remains of the Delaware Canal, the towpath of which has been converted into part of the regional Pennsylvania Highlands Trail Network of hiking and biking trails. Historical plaques along the towpath discuss the history of the canal, the 1837 covered bridge, and the 1904 Roebling bridge. The village is a National Historic District, and the best access to the bridge is to park at the historic Riegelsville Inn, which features the image of the little oil derrick-shaped suspension towers on its sign. I have posted several other photos this bridge, and some other Delaware River bridges, on www.bridgespotting.com. There is also a detailed discussion of the bridges of the upper Delaware River, including a recommended tour, in Chapter 9 of my book, Bridgespotting Part 2: A Guide to Even More Bridges that Connect People, Places, and Times. Sloan Farrell: Amazing bridge! Back in the early 80's, I worked for the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission as a summer job and this bridge was one of the bridges we worked on. The Riegelsville bridge had timber planks and we used to test the strength of the planks. If there was a rotted plank, we would rip up and replace. The next summer we got to rip up all the planks and put down steel open-grid roadway deck. Did we haul away the creosol soaked planks and properly dispose of them? Ummm, not so much. Most floated, sank, or fell on the piers until the Delaware rose up to wash them away. Yup. I don't think we had any safety harnesses as well. Also, because of the size of the bridge and weight limit, the bridge had a guard on each side to stop any trucks from trying go over. May still have them. Though we had constructions jobs up and down the river, we did a lot of grass mowing and painting. If we finished early which happened a lot, we were told by the foreman to get out of the public eye which meant getting on the bridge by a pier, climbing off the bridge onto the pier and under the bridge were it was shaded. We just hanged out bsing till we had to go back. The last thing is that there was a old dive bar, called Hootz, on the NJ side. During lunch, we would go in get very good burger and I think 50 cent drafts. Might be 75 cent. Over 40 years ago. https://www.drjtbc.org/bridges/riegelsville/ Laura Mirsky: Sloan Farrell Hootz is still there! |
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Andrew Iwanowsk commented on Bob's post
March 2005 |
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| Chris Herschel commented on Bob's post |
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| Chris Herschel commented on Bob's post |
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| Chris Herschel commented on Bob's post |
This bridge reminded me of an extradosed bridge because of its multiple short towers. But an extradosed bridge is a variant of a cable-stayed bridge rather than a suspension bridge.
Trail Bridge
Just west of the suspension bridge is a new bridge over the former Delaware Canal.
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| 2012 Photo by Andrew Pearce via ArchivedBridgeHunter |
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