Bridge at Jersey Shore
At first we just admired the interesting design. We had many questions including the purpose of the vertical hangers. They seemed pretty loose. Someone notice that they seemed to tighten when a car whet over. So, we all stationed ourselves by one and waited for the next car. We gently shook the hangers, but all agreed that no increase in tension was felt. For sure the hangers are holding up the road base, but at least in some areas they appear rudundant. We saw a lot of debris caught under the flooring yet the bridge was at leat 20 ft from the river. Hard to beleive that Ivan, last September, could have brought the water up that high, but that's what it looked like. Notice the horizontal beams along the bridge on the upstream and downstream side of the flooring. We notice the deformations. You can see this in the images. We noticed them first on the upstream face and wondered if they were due to debris hitting the bridge during a flood. A second hypothesis was they it was due to thermal warping. At Kelly's suggestion, we checked the first hypothesis by looking at the downstream side. It was just as warped indicating it was not due to debris flowing down. What about the second hypothesis. Most bridges allow for thermal expansion. We looked at the connections of the bridge with the end pilings and saw no room for expansion. Furthermore the area where the metal connected to the pilings was cracked. This was consistent with the second hypothesis. The briged does not adequately allow for thermal expansion. |
Covered Bridge on Lasrry's Creek 
After a bit of exploring, we discoverd that much of the bridge had been rebuilt. It looked like they added or replace the ouside set of wooden arches. The inside arches had been partially replaced. Some of the flooring had been replaced. It looked like most of the inside roof was new. We studied the underside for a while and couldn't figure out exactly what the cross pieces on each end of the bridge were for, and how they were anchored. The road is was dusty. Chris took this picture of the second car load. |
Bridge in Texas, PA
Chris's dad had just finished putting in this bridge, so it was fun to take a look. Pretty serious construction for such a small stream. We couldn't quite figure out what the rubber and styrofoam on the underside were for. |
Bridge on Pine Cr. at English Center, PA.
Had fun jumping up and down on this bridge. First we checked the anchors on the north end. There is a ford adjacent to the bridge for some reason. We saw a couple of cars cross while we were there, so we tried it ourselves in our Jeep. A little deeper than we'd thought, but no problem. |
Bridge on Pine Cr. at Jersey Mills, PA.
Chris and Josh and I were the only ones left at this point. We stopped at this construction site and tried to sort out what they were doing. Looks like some reinforcements were installed on the bridge. (They were not there in the last bridge tour a few years back.) We found some cracks in the pilings. Right now it was one noisy bridge. The new construction looks midway through, with the north piling about complete and the south end under construction. |
Abandoned Trestle on Pine Cr. below Waterville, PA
Our last stop. Had fun climbing around this old, but sturdy trestle. Plenty of trusses, gussets, & rivets. Fun for the whole family. |
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