Today started a just a gorgeous blue sky sunny day, after almost a week of clouds I decided I was going to get out and photograph a couple of landmarks within an hours drive of Scranton. Both are railroad viaducts and both when constructed held the title of worlds largest,
The first is a stone arch bridge the Starrucca Viaduct in Starrucca PA. it was constructed in 1847-48 by the then Erie Railroad and is still in use today by Norfolk Southern.
The second was built between 1912-15 by the Delaware Lackawanna & Western railroad and is still the largest railroad bridge in the USA today. It is called the Tunkhannock Viaduct for the name of the creek Valley it crosses but is actually located Nicholson PA. It is still being used By CP Rail, they had a repair crew working on it while I was there, so no trains crossed.
Both of these structures are truly huge and what is really hard to believe is besides steam powered cement mixers the construction was mostly done by manual labor.
The Lackawanna Railroad was a true pioneer in the use of steel reinforced concrete and used it for almost anything you could think of, bridges, stations, towers, even posts for relay boxes and telephone boxes.It was designed to last and it out lasted the railroad itself.
One old building I found was not made of concrete although it dates to the late 1800’s so it predates the use of it. The Nicholson PA DL&W Freight House.
It is boarded up and shuttered now but it had seen use recently as a storage building.
That made for a nice three hour diversion and was really neat to see. I hope you are all having a nice day. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna.
Great Pictures. Thanks for the interesting trip.
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Those are some beautiful bridges. Thanks for sharing all the great pictures.
ReplyDeleteIf the trains could have climbed those Pennsylvania mountains at more than a 2% grade, those viaducts wouldn't have been necessary. But then we wouldn't have near as much history either. Looks like you had a nice diversion from the sister's home front! Hope all is well.
ReplyDeleteThose viaducts and lovely and so graceful looking. Thanks for the pics.
ReplyDeletegreat shots of the bridges today, Sam!!..thanks for the little tour!!
ReplyDeleteThe Viaducts look like European design & something we'd usually see in Bavarian Countries.
ReplyDeleteThat viaduct is pretty amazing. Thanks for posting all those great pictures.
ReplyDeletenice bridge shots today, Sam!
ReplyDeletewow the work and effort to make a simple utilitarian structure into a thing of beauty!
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Karen and Steve
(Our Blog) RVing: Small House... BIG Backyard
http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/