1874…..On This Day – Today, Harrisburg WANTED a fire but couldn’t make it happen. During the afternoon and evening of this day several attempts were made to burn the western section of the Camelback (Market St.) Bridge over the Susquehanna River. (A picture of the western section is shown below.) All attempts were unsuccessful. The Camelback Bridge was the first bridge to span the entire Susquehanna River. It was built by Jacob Nailor with construction beginning in 1814 and it finally opened as a toll bridge in 1820. The bridge got its name because of its appearance. It was a very long many arched wooden covered bridge. It was actually two bridges separated by City Island. The entire eastern half (other picture) was destroyed by a major fire on May 26, 1866 and subsequently rebuilt as another covered bridge. The Camelback enjoyed a monopoly until the completion of the neighboring Walnut Street Bridge in 1890. Now, as we all know, half of that bridge is gone with no replacement plan under consideration. In 1902, the Camelback Bridge was destroyed by a flood and in 1905 a two-lane replacement bridge was erected at the same location. The present structure, with its graceful stone arches, is the result of the 1926 widening of the replacement bridge. Today, all of Harrisburgs bridges, both rail and vehicle see heavy traffic. Many other cities such as Pittsburgh have many bridges to keep open and repaired. As this story shows, when you only have one, it is a vital piece of a citys capability to function and is needed by nearly everyone.
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 13:05:35 +0000
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