Patterson Viaduct Pedestrian Bridge

Photo 

Map 

Description 

Located within Patapsco Valley State Park, on an abandoned railroad grade from the original Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) - considered to be the first US railroad. Towers of the current cable-stayed pedestrian suspension bridge are founded on the abutments of a 1868 Bollman Truss; which in turn was set on the remnants of an earlier original 1829 stone arch viaduct having two 55' primary arches and a 20' approach arch at either end. One of the 20' arches still exists to this day within the northern abutment - leftover from the flood of 1866 which tore out the two primary 55' arches and the southern 20' approach arch of the original stone arch viaduct. The cable-stayed design of the pedestrian path was chosen to emulate the 1868 Bollman Truss with its wrought iron tension eye bar stays radiating downward and through the truss from an apex at the top of each tower. The Bollman Truss stood for only 30+ years before it too succumbed to flood, was replaced briefly by a temporary bridge, and then abandoned altogether in 1903 when the railroad was realigned through the new Ilchester Tunnel and over the CSX - Patapsco River Bridge a couple hundreds yards to the NNE.

Categories 

Baltimore County, Maryland (101) Built 2006 (74) Built during 2000s (741) Cable-stayed (106) County line crossing (535) Howard County, Maryland (42) Maryland (903)

Modern (2,507) Open to pedestrians (4,692) Owned by state (16,770) Patapsco River (20) Sahale LLC (13) Span length 125-175 feet (4,600)

Update Log 

• September 4, 2019: New photo from Geoff Hubbs
• October 4, 2014: Added by Patrick S. O'Donnell

Related Bridges 

• BO - Patterson Bollman Bridge (Predecessor)
• BO - Patterson Viaduct (Predecessor)

Sources 

• Patrick S. O'Donnell - 1 [dot] 991km [at] comcast [dot] net
• Geoff Hubbs

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