The Patterson Viaduct was built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) as part of its Old Main Line during May to December 1829. The viaduct spanned the Patapsco River at

Ilchester, Maryland Ilchester is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Howard County, Maryland, United States. The population was 23,476 at the 2010 census. It was named after the village of Ilchester in the English county of Somerset. History ...

. It was heavily damaged by a

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

in 1866 and subsequently replaced with other structures.

History and design

Original bridge

The viaduct was constructed during the first building phase of the

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

, which extended from

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, to Ellicott's Mills (today's Ellicott City). The Patterson span at

Ilchester Ilchester is a village and civil parish, situated on the River Yeo or Ivel, five miles north of Yeovil, in the English county of Somerset. Originally a Roman town, and later a market town, Ilchester has a rich medieval history and was a nota ...

, the third initial stone bridge built for the B&O, was similar in construction to the company's first bridge, the nearby Carrollton Viaduct further east spanning the

Gwynns Falls Gwynns Falls is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011. stream located in Baltimore County and Baltimore City, Maryland. Its headwaters are located in Reisterstow ...

and was named for B&O director and well known civic leader and merchant William Patterson who also donated land for

Patterson Park Patterson Park is an urban park in Southeast Baltimore, Maryland, United States, adjacent to the neighborhoods of Canton, Highlandtown, Patterson Park, and Butchers Hill. It is bordered by East Baltimore Street, Eastern Avenue, South Patte ...

in east Baltimore. It was designed by Caspar Wever and built under the supervision of John McCartney, one of Wever's assistants. McCartney's good work on the Patterson Viaduct was later rewarded with the contract to build the longer curving 1833-35

Thomas Viaduct The Thomas Viaduct spans the Patapsco River and Patapsco Valley between Relay, Maryland and Elkridge, Maryland, USA. It was commissioned by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O); built between July 4, 1833, and July 4, 1835; and named for Philip ...

downstream over the upper Patapsco River at

Relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switch ...

. The other span of the first four historic stone and masonry bridges on the B. & O. line was the Oliver Viaduct, also built over the upper Patapsco at Ellicott Mills and adjacent Washington Road. The bridge was constructed of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

blocks and was about long, rising about above its foundations. It had four graduated arches: two of chord length each and two of chord length each. The two smaller side arches allowed the passage of two county roadways, one on each side of the river. The exterior surfaces of the granite blocks were undressed, or rusticated. Patterson ceremonially opened the viaduct on December 4, 1829, a year and a half after the First Stone was laid beginning construction on the line, the first in America. In 1830, The viaduct was part of the route used by the B&O's first horse-drawn carriage train to Ellicott's Mills inaugurating railway traffic.

Second bridge

The viaduct was almost totally destroyed in a major massive 1868 flood which devastated and wiped out most of the numerous stone mills and industrial structures lining the river. A single-span

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 ...

of cast and wrought iron by Wendel Bollman was built into the west

abutment An abutment is the substructure at the ends of a bridge span or dam supporting its superstructure. Single-span bridges have abutments at each end which provide vertical and lateral support for the span, as well as acting as retaining walls ...

in 1869 incorporated the original roadway arch and upstream

wing wall A wing wall (also "wingwall" or "wing-wall") is a smaller wall attached or next to a larger wall or structure. Bridges In a bridge, the wing walls are adjacent to the abutments and act as retaining walls. They are generally constructed of the same ...

. The Bollman design was supplanted by another bridge before the railroad was realigned a little ways upstream in 1902–03 with the opening of the

Ilchester Tunnel Ilchester is a village and civil parish, situated on the River Yeo or Ivel, five miles north of Yeovil, in the English county of Somerset. Originally a Roman town, and later a market town, Ilchester has a rich medieval history and was a notable ...

. According to local folklore, Ilchester Tunnel is haunted by Peeping Tom. The Patterson Viaduct Ruins were 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 June 3, 1976.

Third bridge

Today, all that remains at the original Patterson Viaduct is the single masonry roadway side arch of the 1829 construction on the west bank of the Patapsco and the stone abutment on the east bank, just south of the present railroad bridge. In 2006, a

cable-stayed A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, normally forming a fan-like pattern ...

footbridge carrying the

Grist Mill Trail The Grist Mill Trail is a 5.0 mile long hiking and biking trail located in Patapsco Valley State Park in the Baltimore County side of the Patapsco Valley near Catonsville, Maryland. The paved pathway runs parallel to the Baltimore and Ohio Railro ...

, with a design that echoes the historic architecture and engineering of a Bollman Bridge, was added atop the abutments.

References

External links