The Wills Creek Bollman Bridge originally served the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

's Pittsburgh Division main line. Designed by the self-taught civil engineer

Wendel Bollman Wendel Bollman (January 21, 1814 – 1884) was an American self-taught civil engineer, best known for his iron railway bridges. Only one of his patented "Bollman truss" bridges survives, the Bollman Truss Railroad Bridge in Savage, Maryland. Th ...

in 1871, this

truss bridge A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements (typically straight) may be stressed from tension, compression, or ...

is the last remaining span of the Pittsburgh Division line associated with Bollman. Around 1910, it was moved from Wills Creek to a location north of

Meyersdale, Pennsylvania Meyersdale is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, on the Casselman River, southeast of Pittsburgh. It is part of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area. In the pa ...

, after it was no longer able to safely carry heavier modern locomotives. It served as a vehicular bridge crossing

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

tracks on Long Road (Summit Township Road 381) at . The bridge was again relocated in 2007 to a location east of Meyersdale, where it now carries the

Great Allegheny Passage The Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) is a rail trail between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Cumberland, Maryland. Together with the C&O Canal towpath, the GAP is part of a route between Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., that is popular with through ...

trail over Scratch Hill Road at . Though it was designed by Wendell Bollman, it does not employ his famous

Bollman truss The Bollman Truss Railroad Bridge across the Little Patuxent River at Savage, Maryland, is one of the oldest standing iron railroad bridges in the United States and the sole surviving example of a revolutionary design in the history of American ...

, but rather a

Warren truss Warren Errol Truss, (born 8 October 1948) is a former Australian politician who served as the 16th Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development in the Abbott Government and the Turnbull Governm ...

. It is long and wide. The east abutments are constructed of concrete, while the west are earthen with wood ties. This bridge has a wood deck, and ornate

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

end pieces, lacework, and

compression member Compression members are structural elements that are pushed together or carry a load; more technically, they are subjected only to axial compressive forces. That is, the loads are applied on the longitudinal axis through the centroid of the memb ...

s. End posts and

tension member Tension members are structural elements that are subjected to axial tensile forces. Examples of tension members are bracing for buildings and bridges, truss members, and cables in suspended roof systems. Calculation In an axially loaded tensio ...

s are constructed of

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...

. The bridge was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on November 8, 1978.

References

External links

* {{NRHP bridges Bridges completed in 1871 Railroad bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Warren truss bridges in the United States Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridges Former railway bridges in the United States Bridges in Somerset County, Pennsylvania Historic American Engineering Record in Pennsylvania Relocated buildings and structures in Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Somerset County, Pennsylvania Wrought iron bridges in the United States

See also

References

External links