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Washington
County, Pennsylvania
(WGN
38-63-17) (WGCB PA-63-17) (1889) A single-span Queenpost
truss, 64' 4" over Ten Mile Creek. Located: approximately 1 mile
west of Ten Mile, Amwell Township, Pennsylvania in a park beside Montgomery
Run Road (TR 688), Directions: From I-79 south, take
Marianna/Prosperity Exit (Exit 5). At the end of the exit ramp, turn left
on Ten Mile Road and go 0.2 mile to first road past I-79 north ramp. Turn
left and go 0.3 mile to gated entrance of Amwell park area. The bridge
is located in the park and has been bypassed. In 1889, Amwell Township,
Pennsylvania built the Queenpost truss bridge. However, the combination
of hewed and sawed timbers in the truss system suggests that the bridge
replaced an earlier bridge in the same location. Another possibility
for the timber variences is that materials from a bridge that had washed
away, which originally stood close by, were used in the construction of
the structure. Further support for these theories is the date of
the bridges construction in 1889, immediately following the floods of 1888.
Further evidence of this is contained on a map dated 1878 in Rural Reflections
of Amwell Township, Volume 1 that shows a bridge located on the property
of Esq. Hughes and sons in the vicinity of two saw mills. This confirms
the possibility that before the floods of 1888 a bridge stood in this general
area. In 1915 Washington County. Pennsylvania took over the maintenance
of the bridge. The county expressed a desire in 1971 to move the
bridge to Mingo Creek Park and began demolishing the bridge. Amwell
Township, Pennsylvania expressed what they considered their right to ownership
of the bridge and filed suit against Washington County, Pennsylvania on
January 26, 1971 to stop the County from moving the bridge. In court
the county maintained that in 1915 when it took over the maintenance of
the bridge, it also acquired ownership of the structure. On January 30,
1971, a judge ruled in favor of Amwell Township. Pennsylvania and ordered
Washington County, Pennsylvania to restore the bridge to the conditions
it was in previous to the demolition process. The demolition had
reduced the bridge down to the bare skeleton of the truss system.
According to the courts order, it was restored and stands in its original
park location. It is only open to pedestrian traffic. It has barn
red vertical board siding on both the portals and the exterior sides, and
is painted the same color on the inside. The structure has a sheet
metal roof, a deck of crosswise planking and three rectangular windows
on each side in addition to the narrow eave openings. There are no steel
or wood reinforcements and it rests on a concrete abutment at the north
end and a cut stone and mortar abutment at the south end. There are
short, cut stone and mortar wing walls and parapets that are capped with
concrete at both ends. It was listed on the National Register of
Historic Places on June 22, 1979. (Apr 2005) |
