Trifter

At Harrisburg PA there are four highway bridges and two Railroad Bridges.  From north to south they are Rockville Bridge, I-81, Harvey Taylor, An Unnamed Railroad Bridge, Market Street, I-83 and the PA Turnpike. 

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The Rockville Bridge with its arches and train shows the width of the river well.  It is the oldest of the standing bridges, built in the late 1800’s.  In the foreground you can see the remnants of the pillars of an older bridge.

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Interstate 81 Bridge as seen through an arch of the Rockville Railroad Bridge.  

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Harvey Taylor Bridge as seen from the west bank – south of the bridge.

At this time I do not have pictures of the other bridges.  I will pick up these and post them as time permits.  

These bridges are each nearly a mile long to span the river at that point.  The next crossing, about 11 miles to the north is actually two bridges (200 yards and 550 yards) that cross the Juniata and the Susquehanna West Branch just north of where they meet.  Eighteen miles to the south two bridges cross between Colombia and Wrightsville. The new one carries four lanes of U.S. Route 30 and the other two lanes of PA 462 which is the path of the old Lincoln Highway.  Fifty years ago the next crossing was south of the state line where US Route 1 crosses on the top of the Conowingo dam.  The trip from Airville in York County to Holtwood in Lancaster County was nearly fifty miles to US Route 1 and over sixty miles through Wrightsville and Colombia..  Then came the Norman Wood bridge.  It cut that trip to about 17 miles.  Maps of the area show it well. 

Airville to Holtwood via Colombia

From Yahoo Maps

Airville to Holtwood via US 1

From Yahoo Maps

Airville to Holtwood via Norman Wood – 7 miles, 8 Minutes and beautiful.

From Yahoo Maps

Of these bridges the Norman Wood is by far the most awesome from every standpoint.  I will admit that the new PA Turnpike Bridge is certainly almost as impressive but it is longer and has more lanes.  The Norman Wood has two lanes with narrow walkways on each side and is about a half mile long, compared to the eight tenths to one mile length of the other bridges. Although 40 miles south of the Juniata/West Branch bridges which are together about a half mile long this bridge is only about the same length in spite of the river now including the water of many additional streams including the Codorus and Conestoga. .

This bridge has an elevation of about 260 feet at the west end and 320 on the east, a climb of about 60 feet.  And the river below it is at an elevation of about 110 feet making the distance from the water more than 150 feet.  Driving unto this bridge is almost like walking out on a tight rope. .  Pictures don’t depict this well because you eyes don’t tell you the distance with a picture. 

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A good example of this is the picture above.  This picture is taken from about 40 yards from the the Holtwood (east) end of the bridge.  If you look carefully you will see two cars climbing the hill from the bridge on the west side of the river.  These cars are very close to six tenths of a mile from the camera based on the length of the bridge.  The cars on the bridge are only about one third of that distance based on their width and size being just about three times that of the cars on the far side.

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This picture gives a view of the road climbing from the bridge on the Airville (west) end.  It is steep but not so much as this picture would lead one to believe. The camera has been zoomed in to only show about a half of the bridge.  This was taken from the Holtwood end.

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A considerable amount of rock had to be drilled and blasted for the road to this bridge.  This picture is taken from the Holtwood end facing east – away from the bridge.  Note that the right side of the rock face has been blasted back far enough to provide a fall zone for rock.  As the rock weathers pieces will fall away.  This zone allows the rock to fall harmlessly in that area between the edge of the shoulder and the rock face.  I have seen weathered areas have rock falls that were large enough that they had to be broken up before they could be moved.  One in can remember on a face like this near Franklin PA was at least 8 by 5 by 3 (feet).  This could easily weigh over twelve tons.  This expensive excavation is absolutely necessary.   The other side is not as high because of the slope of the hill and it is cut at a slope to prevent large falls.  Most falls happen during freeze and thaw cycles. 

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This view of the river shows something interesting.  It appears to be dry.  We are downstream from the Holtwood power plant Dam.  If the dam were opened and allowed to empty this area would become a slow moving lake as it was before the dam was built.  There is water on the lower channel on this side of the river, the water that either spills over the dam or exits through the turbines and produces electricity. 

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This view is from the south side of the roadway on the Holtwood end.  It shows the flow of the river better. 

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I just had to include this picture.  It shows the sun cutting through the haze that is over the river most of the time.  It shows on several other pictures but not to this degree.  Note the two motorcycles in the background.  Although this bridge seems to be out in the sticks it has a considerable amount of traffic.

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This picture shows the bridge from the Airville (west) end.  From here it is easy to see the bridge is an up hill from this end.  Somehow it just doesn’t look like it is a half mile long. 

This view is from the south side of the roadway on the Holtwood end.  It shows the flow of the river better.

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Picture by author

This is in my opinion the most impressive view of the bridge I have in the collection. I am actually looking for a place I can take something that shows the whole bridge, possibly from near the Holtwood dam.   The picture of the Norman Wood was taken from the park at the Muddy Run power plant. We are just above river level and about three miles away.  Note the size of the cars on the bridge and compare them tot the height of the pillars that support the bridge. We are looking at only two of the spans.  Note the height of the pillars which are nearly 200 feet tall. 

There are pictures of the Muddy Run power plant area in this collection.  A link will be added here soon.