Results tagged “Lancaster-York Heritage Region” from York Town Square

Wrightsville's Veterans Memorial Bridge landing may be improved in a tourism initiative spearheaded by Rivertownes, www.rivertownes.org. When it was built in 1930, the bridge carried Lincoln Highway traffic across the mile-wide Susquehanna River. After construction of the Wright's Ferry Bridge in the early 1970s, the bridge, also called the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge, has carried mostly local traffic. Background posts: Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge celebrates quiet birthday and Susquehanna bridge makeover flowing along.

Last we heard, plans were under way to rehab the lighting and other historic parts of the Veterans Memorial Bridge.

Now, Rivertownes PA, a tourism agency, has proposed working on the landing on the York County side of the bridge and other landscaping projects across the river in Columbia and Marietta... .

I've looked at a lot of photos capturing the Susquehanna River but saw a bunch of new images at a preview of an exhibit this week.

One photograph, in particular, caught my attention. It showed two iron bridge spans standing in the middle of the river amid the wreckage of their wooden counterparts.

Here's the background:

After Union troops burned the Susquehanna River bridge to keep rebel invaders on the west bank in 1863, about six years passed before another structure spanned the river between York and Lancaster counties.

Someone came up with idea of installing two iron spans near mid-river. If the bridge again was ignited, the loss would be 50 percent, at most.

But in 1896, a cyclone blew down that mile-long covered bridge. That is, all but the iron spans... .