Chester Gehman

George--

Glad to be of some help. My interest in the gravity railroads stemmed from a friendship with the late Dr. Ed Steers of Wallenpaupack. He had quite a collection of railroad stuff.

Chet

If memory serves, this line to Honesdale was chartered in the 1880's by the Pennsylvania Coal Company as the Erie & Wyoming Valley RR. Honesdale was the transfer point for coal arriving from the Scranton area via the gravity railroads of both the Delaware & Hudson and The PCC; the D&H Canal took it from there to Rondout on the Hudson River. But the PCC felt the D&H was overcharging them on the canal trip and built the E&WV to haul their coal to Lackawaxen and the Erie RR. The line was later extended to the Scranton area and eventually taken over by the Erie.

Having waited two years for a report that this bridge was finally re-located to the Waterworks Park in Bethlehem, I decided it was time for a look-see. What a disappointment to see they welched the deal and put in a modern truss replacement. Too bad!

What did Della-ware? Why, she wore a brand New Jersey!

Take the roof off the hothouse, mother--the corn is growing tall tonight!

Julie:

According to Victor Darnell in his book "A Directory of American Bridge Building Companies 1840-1900"--The Penn Bridge Company is the only listing for Beaver Falls, 1868-1901. Also listed is a Western Pennsylvania Bridge Works in Pittsburgh for the year 1888. Not much help there.

Chet

A likely candidate would be the Birmingham Iron Foundry of Birmingham (now Derby) CT

For any of you who are considering watermarking your photos, there is a neat program out there that will do it for you.

Watermarking Pro 3.2.0 You can get it free through

Giveaway of the day.

Go to WWW.Giveawayoftheday.com They offer free software, but you must download and install in the 24 hours it is offered, so you have to do it today, May 12.

1. Download the program. You have to give an e-mail address and they will send you a link to the download page.

2. Read the readme file. It contains the registration key.

3. Install the program.

4. Copy and paste the Reg key.

Remember: You have to do this before the end of the day! Downloading it now and installing it tomorrow won't work.

The program offers many different styles of copyright data.

I don't think it was changed. HAER lists it as Pine Creek Bridge At Messerall Road. Historicbridges.org lists it as Messerall Road Bridge. The original entry was probably based on the HAER data.

I have found the following link to be helpful in understanding copyright law. We all should read it.

https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2012/03/06/copyright-and-th...

Well, you sure suckered me. Realistically, though, I don't think many of us would object to being asked for a donation. Websites ain't free, except when loaded with pop-up advertising. Just thinking.

Dana--

You are welcome. Looks like you've got it.

Dana--

The "Witch Bridge" also known as the "Enchanted Bridge" was on Greene Street in Lawrence. Route 495 cut off Greene Street, but the abutments are still there on the Shawsheen River Trail. See:

https://www.fonat.org/shawsheen

Regards,

Chet Gehman

I, as well as many of you, have been surprised and dismayed by seeing our photos appear on other websites. I have also wondered about the correctness of posting historical photos and post cards on BridgeHunter as pertains to copyright law. I came across a web page which clarifies these issues. For example, the date 1923 has been used as the start of copyright protection. There is a second criteria that must be met as well--it has to have been publicly published by the copyright owner as well, which puts it in the public domain. Presumably posting on the internet is publishing? I don't know. What are your thoughts?

https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2012/03/06/copyright-and-th...

If this is a Truesdell patant bridge--and I have no reason to doubt it--then it was most likely erected by the firm of A. D. Briggs of Springfield, Mass. According to the Hartford (CT) Weekly Times of May 17,1873, "In 1863 Mr. Truesdell sold the rights to build bridges in New England to Mr. A.D.Briggs of Springfield, who has erected about 40 of the Truesdell bridges between that and the present time." Lucius E. Truesdell was from Warren, MA, a short distance east of Springfield, which may partially explain why the Briggs company was chosen.