The "Nutcracker Hill" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Standing above the "Nutcracker" wondering why I was so in awe of it when I was a young boy.  Certainly doesn't look threatening as it once must have seemed to my friends and me.  About three blocks from my house on North Queen Street in Lancaster, PA was the Lititz Pike bridge.  I have written about it before and the fact that the neighborhood kids would have to cross it on our way to school every day for six years.  

After crossing the bridge, we had to contend
with all the traffic at the bottom of the bridge.
Milton J. Brecht Elem. School was in the far distance.

Went to the Milton J. Brecht Elementary School which was about a little over a mile from my house.  The bridge crossed the Pennsylvania Railroad mainline as Route 501 left the city and entered Manheim Township.  I can still remember walking over that bridge to and from school in all types of weather and in all seasons.  Just before you reached the bridge on the south side of the structure was a large shrub covered hill that was on the side of the road.  Since the bridge was high enough for passing trains under it, the hill was rather high and fairly steep.  Made a great hill for sledding on after a winter snowstorm.  

This sign was on the top of the bridge.  We would often hold
each other on our shoulders so we could touch the top of the
bridge.  Pretty stupid I know, but we were kids.

The bottom of the hill emptied onto a cinder parking lot so we had no worries about reaching the bottom and hitting anything.  I can remember many times when the snow was packed so tightly that the hill was covered with a layer of ice.  We flew down the hill and into the parking lot.  Part way down the hill was an area that protruded out from the rest of the surface.  

Nutcracker Hill on the side of the bridge.

Made a great jump for the more daring to go over on your sled.  Called it the "Nutcracker," so we did, for obvious reasons.  A few times sledders would head home with a tear or two in the corner of their eye from flying over the "Nutcracker" and landing the wrong way.  Well, today, as I stand above the hill, looking down to the parking lot, I have a hard time believing that we actually feared it.  Now there is a fenced-in parking lot at the bottom where the cinders used to be, but the hill still remains much the same.  Gonna tear the bridge down in another year or so, since a new one is being constructed next to the "Nutcracker" hill.  The old bridge is falling apart and no longer safe for the constant traffic that flows from the city.  I'll miss the the old hill, but will still have the memories from long ago when we flew over the jump and tried to land safely at the bottom of the "Nutcracker."  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.