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Powerhouse Bridge

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
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Photo taken by Sean McDonnell

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Description 

A 1,560 foot raised trestle and Pratt truss bridge made of strong timber and concrete, featuring a steel deck truss center span, all the railroad tracks have since been removed, but a level of wood and dirt remain as a testimonial of the history of the railroad.

This was once a part of the Atglen & Susquehanna Branch, a Pennsylvania RR low-grade freight bypass of Lancaster between Columbia and Atglen, and used to carry several freight trains a day between the Harrisburg area and points east; Conrail acquired PRR successor Penn Central in 1976 and later shifted through freight trains off the ex-PRR Harrisburg-Philadelphia-Trenton routes in favor of former Reading RR routes. Conrail abandoned this bridge, and the entire Atglen & Susquehanna, around 1988. Currently it is a part of the planned Enola Low Grade Trail which extends from just outside Harrisburg to Paradise, Pa.

Facts 

Overview
Abandoned bridge on former PRR low-grade freight line, it crosses over the Congestoga Creek and passes by the Safe Harbor Powerplant
Location
Safe Harbor, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Status
Abandoned to rail service 1988 but used by pedestrans, cyclists, and 4-wheel drive vehicles
History
Built 1904-06, this bridge was a part of the the Atglen & Susquehanna Branch on the PRR
Builders
- H.S. Kerbaugh Inc. (Erectors)
- Pennsylvania Steel Co. of Steelton, Pennsylvania
- William H. Brown (Chief Engineer)
Design
300-foot pin-connected Pratt deck truss main span; supplemented by plate girder viaducts on steel bents – nine spans measuring 480 feet to the north and seventeen spans to south measuring 780 feet.
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 300.0 ft.
Total length: 1,560.0 ft.
Also called
Safe Harbor Crossing
Port Deposit Trestle
Enola Low Grade Safe-harbor Crossing
Approximate latitude, longitude
+39.92532, -76.38432   (decimal degrees)
39°55'31" N, 76°23'04" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
18/381704/4420386 (zone/easting/northing)
USGS topographic map
Safe Harbor
Inventory number
BH 47614 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

Abandoned (1,371)
Deck girder (1,799)
Deck truss (953)
Girder (3,235)
H.S. Kerbaugh Inc. (1)
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (121)
Open to ATVs (4)
Pennsylvania (3,037)
Pennsylvania Railroad (167)
Pennsylvania Steel Co. (33)
Plate girder (2,249)
 Pratt deck truss (169)
Pratt truss (5,658)
Preserved (652)
Rail-to-trail (494)
Railroad (4,069)
Safe Harbor, Pennsylvania (2)
Span length 250-500 feet (863)
Total length 1000-2500 feet (1,213)
Truss (23,565)
William H. Brown (7)

Update Log 

  • February 21, 2013: Updated by Luke Harden: Fixed builders.
  • February 21, 2013: Updated by Alexander D. Mitchell IV: Added builder info, link to sources, corrected data
  • July 15, 2011: Updated by Daniel Hopkins: Added the Enola Low Grade info
  • July 8, 2011: Updated by Daniel Hopkins: Updated informaiton about the Enola Low Grade Trail
  • July 7, 2011: New photo from Luke Harden
  • June 11, 2011: Updated by Alexander D. Mitchell IV: Description and overview corrected and expanded, creek name corrected
  • May 27, 2011: Updated by Daniel Hopkins: Updated creek name
  • May 26, 2011: Updated by Daniel Hopkins: updated history
  • January 11, 2011: Added by Daniel Hopkins

Sources 

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Comments 

Powerhouse Bridge
Posted July 8, 2011, by Daniel Hopkins (chimera [at] clovermail [dot] net)

OH WOW! I love that pic!! I was going to figure a way to get to the bridge soon so I could get some good pictures of it but wow!

Powerhouse Bridge
Posted July 7, 2011, by Sean McDonnell (onesmooth68 [at] comcast [dot] net)

Photo from 2005

Webmaster's note: The photo that was here has been incorporated into the main site.