Demolition begins on one of central Pa.’s last historic stone arch bridges

• By Amy Worden/PennLive

George Christianson stood on the lawn of the bucolic property in Annville he bought 60 years ago and watched a backhoe rip apart the sycamore trees alongside the old stone arch bridge.

PennDOT contractors were beginning to demolish the triple arch bridge, built around 1880 to carry horses and buggies over the Quittapahilla Creek.

Over the years, four generations of Christiansons woke up each morning to picture postcard views of the bridge adjacent to their Syner Road property. Through the decades the family enjoyed fishing and frolicking in the bubbling creek below their home.

“I have no idea why they are tearing it down,” said Christianson. “It’s sad to see it go.”

Pennsylvania has a rich history of stone arch bridges, the oldest surviving one dates to the 17th century, shortly after William Penn received the land grants from King Charles II to establish the colony.

Today 363 stone arch bridges remain, according to PennDOT, but two decades ago there were close to 500 statewide. Those that were demolished were in poor condition or were deemed too narrow to accommodate school buses, farm equipment or emergency vehicles, PennDOT says.

The largest concentration of stone arch bridges are located in the southeastern Pennsylvania, among them the Frankford Avenue bridge in Philadelphia. Built in 1697, it is believed to be the oldest roadway bridge in the country and still carries 15,000 vehicles a day over Pennypack Creek.

But most of the stone bridges are found in bucolic, rural settings, where narrow back roads lead down to meandering creeks that flow through graceful arches often not even visible to motorists.

The bridges are subject to damage from vehicle accidents, flooding and soil erosion that can cause deterioration over time. In the case of the Syner Road bridge, inspection reports show a 30-year decline in the condition of the bridge rating. PennDOT said the bridge’s width (19 feet) and lack of modern engineering safety features poses a risk to motorists in the roughly 700 vehicles that cross it each day.

“The current structure was in poor structural condition,” said PennDOT regional spokesman David Thompson. “In addition, there are design issues with the bridge. The structure is a one-lane bridge with two traffic lanes on either approach. This has the potential to create conflict between vehicles that approach the structure at the same time.”

The bridge is one of fewer than a dozen pre-1900 stone arch bridges left in the Harrisburg region, according to the BridgeHunter database. Of the two remaining 19th century stone arch bridges in Lebanon County, one (also spanning the Quittapahilla Creek) is slated for demolition. The other, which crosses over the Tulpehocken Creek on Reilly Road, was restored by Lebanon County last year.

Christianson and his son Joel began their quest to save their bridge more than a decade ago. They tried appealing to their state lawmakers, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, “anyone who’d listen,” Christianson said.

“I wrote to everyone I knew,” George Christianson said. “It’s an inanimate object that people take for granted and there were only one-to-four property owners to fight the fight. It became futile.”

Nor was the bridge deemed historic and worthy of preservation under the criteria for the National Register of Historic Places because of “lost integrity of original design” stemming from parts of the bridge having crumbled and because of inappropriate repair work of unknown origin, PennDOT said.

The Christiansons wondered why the new bridge couldn’t have been located next to the old bridge and the road realigned as others have been elsewhere in the state, notably the Craighead metal truss bridge in Boiling Springs.

“While it may seem like a simple solution, it would require a realignment of the roadway, additional environmental permitting, and the acquisition of a significant amount of adjacent property,” Thompson said.

“This would be unnecessarily costly for a bridge with relatively low traffic volumes…,” he said, “and because it is “not historically or technologically distinguished by its setting or context.”

But the Christiansons are not the only ones who see value in saving historic stone bridges in the state. In one recent case, a Lower Saucon Township Northampton County community tried to save the Meadows Road stone bridge. The 1858 bridge, one of two four-span bridges in the county, came down last month.

At least one battle to save a Pennsylvania stone bridge continues. In Tinicum, Bucks County, the Delaware River Keeper, with the backing of outdoor clothing giant Patagonia, is trying to preserve the Headquarters Bridge, which dates to 1812. It may well become the next stone arch bridge taken down by PennDOT.

Thompson defended PennDOT’s efforts to thoroughly review all historic bridges. “They are evaluated on a case-by-case basis with their historic value considered,” he said.

The new Syner Road bridge will be completed by early 2023 at a cost $1.4 million, PennDOT said. With a nod to the old bridge’s design and its scenic location, the new bridge will feature double arches and a faux masonry veneer.

Still, the Christiansons mourn the loss of a slice of Pennsylvania history. “People destroy architecture because they see no value in it,” said Joel Christianson. “You never know what you lost until it’s gone.”

He said he would like to salvage some stones from the bridge and incorporate them in a cottage by the creek.

“I hope to use stones in a fishing cottage on the property,” Joel Christianson said, “that would be representative of the solidity and longevity that the bridge represented to four generations of my family.”