Carlton Bridge
Facts
- Overview
- Through truss bridge over French Creek on SR 1015 (New Lebanon Road)
- Location
- Mercer County, Pennsylvania
- Status
- Currently being moved to Michigan for refurbishment and then on to its new home in New Jersey
- History
- Built 1888 by Columbia Bridge Works; rehabilitated 1990
- Builders
- - BACH Steel of St. Johns, Michigan (disassembly, future restoration)
- Columbia Bridge Co. of Dayton, Ohio (successors to) [also known as Columbia Bridge Works]
- Columbia Bridge Works of Dayton, Ohio (also known as)
- D.H. & C.C. Morrison of Dayton, Ohio [also known as Columbia Bridge Works]
- Design
- Two span Pratt through truss
- Dimensions
-
Total length: 275.9 ft.
Deck width: 18.5 ft.
- Recognition
- Posted to the National Register of Historic Places on June 22, 1988
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +41.47141, -80.01843 (decimal degrees)
41°28'17" N, 80°01'06" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 17/581961/4591555 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- New Lebanon
- Average daily traffic (as of 2013)
- 331
- Inventory numbers
- PA 43 1015 0060 1472 (Pennsylvania Bridge Management System number)
PANBI 25933 (Pennsylvania BRKEY bridge number on the 2011 NBI)
NRHP 88000862 (National Register of Historic Places reference number)
BH 31282 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection report (as of August 2012)
- Overall condition: Fair
Substructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Deck condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 1 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com
Update Log
- June 7, 2020: Updated by Art Suckewer: Added category "BACH Steel"
- July 22, 2018: New photo from Art Suckewer
- March 24, 2015: Updated by Art Suckewer: fixed typos
- September 10, 2014: New photos from Patrick S. O'Donnell
- August 31, 2014: Updated by Art Suckewer: Fixed build year
- May 11, 2014: Updated by James Baughn: Bridge is no longer in place; it will be refurbished and relocated to New Jersey
- March 5, 2014: Updated by Dave King: Added NRHP info & imported photos
- November 14, 2010: New photos from Jason Smith
- May 16, 2010: New photos from Brian McKee
Sources
- Brian McKee - bjmckee51 [at] yahoo [dot] com
- Historicbridges.org - by Nathan Holth
- Jason Smith - flensburg [dot] bridgehunter [dot] av [at] googlemail [dot] com
- Janis Ford
- Todd Wilson
- Dave King - DKinghawkfan [at] hotmail [dot] com
- James Baughn - webmaster [at] bridgehunter [dot] com
- Art Suckewer - Asuckewer [at] knite [dot] com
- Patrick S. O'Donnell - 1 [dot] 991km [at] comcast [dot] net
Comments
So it looks like they transposed the last two digits as 227 instead of the correct 272, then fixed it by changing the second 2 to a 7, making it 277.
Good thing it's not cast in bronze. Oh, wait.
136 + 136 = 277 - 5?
That center pier must be 5 feet wide.
Maybe there's a 5 foot expansion joint.
Could 5 just be a fudge factor?
This was done by PennDOT?
lol. Please explain.
Don Burden at PennDOT was able to address the length error and a corrected plaque has now been installed at the location!
I contacted PennDOT and they are going to look into this issue with the plaque. Kara Russell said this was the first she had seen the plaque and agrees that this needs to be fixed.
It’s also technically a Columbia Bridge Co. product (successors to CBW) but I think that would be splitting hairs as none of the plaques actually said Columbia Bridge Co. The upper plaques are standard CBW like most CBCo. bridges. But both lower plaques are commissioner plaques! Neither are the ‘Successor to...’ plaque.
Just an interesting tidbit to ponder while contemplating math errors,
Regards,
Art S.
Tony,
That’s funny! Sad but funny. I never bothered reading it. I just posted it for completeness.
Regards,
Art S.
I just love it that even with PennDot's feeble attempt to "Memorialize" this bridge by placing a historical marker at the site they screwed it up.
136+136=227?🤔
New bridge open:
http://www.meadvilletribune.com/news/local_news/mercer-count...
Thought this PENNDOT article may be of interest. It is my understanding that Nels Raynor advised both the contractor and PENNDOT how to remove the trusses. Fortunately, the engineer remembered when the contractor forgot...
http://www.dot.state.pa.us/Penndot/Districts/district1.nsf/7...
Thanks for the photosPatrick! Did you introduce yourself to Nels Raynor?
Regards,
Art S.
Coming down soon...
http://m.meadvilletribune.com/meadville/pm_112781/contentdet...
The is a uinque and ornate bridge, I don't know off any others off this style. If the could restore it in 1990 I think they could restore it again. America's future generations need to have beautiful bridges preserved so the can see what the 18 and 1900s were like!!
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/pa/mercer/carlton/
Don,
Its always been listed as 277. I never measured it but kind of wondered. Wouldn't it be funny if the listed length was wrong... :^)
For me, the big thing was figuring out the build date. When I got started it was listed as 1898. Not only did it seem late, I was pretty sure the company didn't exist by then. Based on the commissioners listed I narrowed it down to an 18 month window during 1888-1889 where they overlapped. I think Nathan, someone on bridgehunter or PENNDOT then found a document that confirmed 1888.
Regards,
Art S.