Industrial History

Thursday, December 5, 2024

Street View, Oct 2018

"Significance: "Because Pennsylvania has few low-lying areas, the Darby River Bridge is one of a limited number of movable railroad structures in the state, and even more rare as an overhead-counterweight bascule bridge." [HAER_data]

HAER PA,23-EDDY,1--1
1. View looking south-southeast by 160 degrees, toward Delaware River. Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Bridge in foreground, Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge behind. - Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington Railroad, Darby River Bridge, Spanning Darby Creek, South of Essington Avenue (State Route 291), Eddystone, Delaware County, PA

HAER PA,23-EDDY,1--2
2. View looking due east along Pennsylvania railroad, with bascule spans raised.

HAER PA,23-EDDY,1--3
3. View looking due east along Pennsylvania Railroad, showing underside of bascule leaf. Note that reduction gears and pinion operate rack mounted to bottom of girders.

Digitally Zoomed

HAER PA,23-EDDY,1--4
4. Perspective view, looking north-northwest at Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Bridge.

HAER PA,23-EDDY,1--5
5. Perspective view showing counterweights of both bridges and operator's house for Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge, looking southwest by 230 degrees.

HAER PA,23-EDDY,1--6
6. Detail view, looking north-northwest, showing underside of counterweight and main trunnion bearing for bascule leaf of Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Bridge.

HAER PA,23-EDDY,1--7
7. Elevation view, looking south-southwest, showing bascule leaf, counterweight, and operator's house for Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge.

Jonathan Konopka posted on Aug 28, 2022
These are the Darby Creek Railroad Bridges in Greater Philadelphia, PA. They are a pair of bascule bridges that were built in 1917 and carry former PRR railroad lines over Darby Creek. Photo is courtesy of HistoricBridges.org.
[Actually, the northern bridge carried the Reading Railroad.]

I got another Historic Bridges photo since Elaine Deutsch caught the Pennsy bridge in the closed position on Nov 3, 2014. Since there is more boat traffic than train traffic here, most photos catch the Pennsy bridge in the open position. Conrail abandoned the Reading route east of Eddystone, so that bridge is always up.

Photo via HistoricBridges (link at the top of the page)

Pennsy was north of Reading at Ridley Creek, but south of Reading at Darby Creek.

1953/55 Bridgeport Quad @ 24,000

8th of 26 photos in B&T (link at the top of the page)

B&T (link at the top of the page), this webpage has a nice history as well as 26 overview photos.

Since the Reading bridge was abandoned soon after Conrail was formed in 1976, it still has its original interlocking machine and signaling pipelines. (The Pennsy bridge was converted to remote control in 2005.) The position-light blog has a lot of photos of the details of the Reading signaling equipment including these three photos.

a
The interlocking frame.

b
The guts of the interlocking frame.

c
Signalling pipelines controlling the rail locks.

Abandoned posted five photos with the comment:

The Darby Creek Bridges consist of two bascule spans crossing Darby Creek near Chester, Pennsylvania. Built in 1917, one bridge carried the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad (later the Reading Company) on its Philadelphia & Chester Branch, while the other served the Pennsylvania Railroad's Chester & Philadelphia Branch.
Today, one bridge remains in use by CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway. The other was abandoned in 1976 following the formation of Conrail.
🔖 History + photos: https://abandonedonline.net/location/darby-creek-bridges/

Joe Brown posted five photos with the comment:

Known by the locals as fat Man's bridge
In the 90s people used to jump off of it
I think more recently people are just soft.lol or smart .
Delaware County Pennsylvania

A nice view of the closer overhead weight.

New Del Rio Trail Bridge over I-5 in Sacramento, CA has to be replaced

(Satellite)

Street View, Jun 2024

The 4.8 mile (7.7km) trail cost $23m. It opened May 2024, EXCEPT for the bridge over I-5 that connects this trail to the Sacramento River Bike Trail. The city determined just before it was scheduled to open that the bridge "was not built to required specifications." They expect the contractor to remove the bad bridge and replace it at their cost. [CityOfSacramento]

The city's webpage says the bridge "is currently still under construction with the goal of opening this summer." I assume they meant the Summer of 2024. However, I found a Sep. 10, 2024, article [cbsnews] saying the city is still saying the contractor should replace the bridge.

"The contractor is directed to provide a plan and schedule for the removal and replacement no later than September 30, 2024." [abc10]

I learned of this bridge from this video. Starting at 3:18, the video explains what I thought, the city is also at fault because they did not properly monitor the concrete and rebar during construction.

9:42 video

Wednesday, December 4, 2024

1842 Kentucky River Lock and Dam #5 near Lawrenceburg, KY

(Satellite)

While studying the Young's High and Tyrone "S" Bridges, I noticed this lock and dam on the satellite map.

This dam was built in 1842 as part of the Kentucky River Waterway. It was rebuilt in 1886 and closed in 2006. [AbandonedOnline]

nara, Public Domain

I can't correlate this photo with the satellite image. This photo looks like a dam removal project. When I did a Google search for this dam, I didn't get much for this dam. But I did get a lot of results concerning the removal of L&D #5 on the Green River. This photo does match the photos in EdmonsonVoice. I think Carol uploaded to the wrong river.

carol bledsoe, Jul 2021

When I got an image of the Young's High Bridge, I thought the river level was rather high.

Street View via Dennis DeBruler

So I looked at some other dates, and I was puzzled because the river always seemed to fill its banks. This view was about the lowest river level I could find. Dam #5, which is just downstream from this bridge, explains why the river always looks high. If they ever do remove this dam, then Young's Bridge will finally be higher than the Cincinnati Southern's High Bridge of which they planned to beat by 6" but missed it by 12".

Street View, May 2019

Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Bloomfield Bridge over Bloomfield Ravine in Pittsburgh, PA

1914-78: (Archived Bridge Hunter link is broken; pghbridges)

1986: (Archived Bridge Hunter; pghbridges; Satellite)

Both NS/Pennsy and CSX/B&O used the ravine under this bridge to access Pittsburgh. The total length of the bridge was 2,100' (650m) of which 1,740' (530m) was the length of the trusses. The height of the deck was 185' (56m). [pghbridges_1914]

Jackson-Township historical preservation posted

General view of the Bloomfield Bridge, looking Southeast in Pittsburgh on July 21, 1914. Connecting Bigelow Boulevard and Liberty Avenue, the bridge took one year to build. It was designed by the city's Bureau of Bridges for an approximate cost of $450,000 but built by the Fort Pitt Bridge Works. The cantilevered structure totals 2,100 feet in length. The main span is 400 feet long of cantilever construction and consists of two cantilever arms, each 140 feet long, and one suspended span of 120 feet.

(Photo from http://images.library.pitt.edu/)

Jackson-Township historical preservation posted

[The comment is similar to the above comment.]

(Photo from http://images.library.pitt.edu/)

Bridges Now and Then posted

Building Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield Bridge, July 21, 1914. (University of Pittsburgh)

𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻: 𝗣𝗲𝗻𝗻𝘀𝘆𝗹𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗮 posted
Bloomfield Bridge • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • 1967!
📸 • David Plowden
Ciao Pittsburgh posted
The Bloomfield Bridge around 1958.

pghbridges_1914

pghbridges_gallery, City of Pittsburgh, bureau of Engineering photo

HistoricPittsburgh, Pittsburgh City Photographer
"The cantilevered structure totals 2,100 feet in length. The main span is 400 feet [122m] long of cantilever construction and consists of two cantilever arms, each 140 feet [43m] long, and one suspended span of 120 feet [37m]."

pitt, Pittsburgh City Photographer
"Connecting Bigelow Boulevard and Liberty Avenue, the bridge took one year to build. It was designed by the city's Bureau of Bridges for an approximate cost of $450,000."

This view illustrates why the total and trusses lengths are different.

PittsburghBeautiful

The 1541' (470m) long 1986 bridge has a longest span of 300' (91m); [BridgeHunter_1986]

Street View, Oct 2020

PittsburghBeautiful

Monday, December 2, 2024

1870 Ewalt/43rd Street and 1924,1991 Washington Crossing/40th Street Bridges over Allegheny River at Pittsburgh, PA

1870: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Satellite, south termination.)

1924: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; HAER; HAER_drawings; PGHbridges; Satellite, 100 photos)

The Washington Crossing Bridge was finished in 1924. This 2,432' (741m) long bridge has a main span of 380' (116m). The 1991 rehabilitation retained "a relatively high level of historic integrity" [HistoricBridges]

The vertical clearance is 180' (55m) at the center of the arches and 72.5' (22m) at the spring lines of the arches. [PGHbridges]

Street View, Jul 2017

HAER PA,2-PITBU,26--12 (CT)
12. 3/4 VIEW FROM NORTHWEST. - Washington Crossing Bridge, Spanning Allegheny River at Fortieth Street (State Route 2124), Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, PA

Jackson-Township historical preservation posted

This was the 43rd Street Bridge in Pittsburgh, also known as the Ewalt Street Bridge. It was built in 1870 and connected Butler Plant Road in Millvale to 43rd Street (formerly Ewalt Street) in Lawrenceville. The bridge was demolished in 1924 and replaced with the Washington Crossing Bridge at 40th Street. The 43rd Street Bridge was the last covered bridge in Pittsburgh.

(Photo from John Schalcosky via https://www.facebook.com/groups/132768683480072/)

John Lee: Butler PLANK Road.

Dan Swartz: Knowing the location of the remaining retaining wall for this bridge and its height above normal pool I would say the river in this picture was at high flood level.

"Significance: The Washington Crossing Bridge is an outstanding example of a long-span metal deck arch bridge. Its unique architectural details, forged in a successful collaboration between architects and engineers in the design and construction of the bridge, add to its significance. The bridge is also significant because its construction was the culmination of a conflict over Allegheny River bridge heights between the U.S. War Department and local governments. The Washington Crossing Bridge was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1988." [HAER_data]

𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻: 𝗣𝗲𝗻𝗻𝘀𝘆𝗹𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗮 and Ohio posted
Circa 1950s/1960s at Washington Crossing Bridge, aka the 40th Street Bridge, in Pittsburgh, PA!
Nick Markowitz Jr. shared
Hepenstall.steel in background

PGHbridges

These signals confirm that the middle lane is reversible.

Street View, Nov 2022

Sunday, December 1, 2024

Pomeroy-Academia Covered Bridge over Tuscarora Creek near Academia, PA

(Archived Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite,, 218 photos)

Frank Aungst, Jun 2023

Uncovering PA posted two photos with the comment: "Juniata County is home to three historic covered bridges, including the longest covered bridge in PA: https://uncoveringpa.com/visiting-covered-bridges-of..."