The "Another Look at the Veterans Memorial Bridge" Story

The Veterans Memorial Bridge showing the refurbished lights.

It was an ordinary day.  Standing on the east side of the Veterans Memorial Bridge that connects the cities of Columbia and Wrightsville in Pennsylvania.  The bridge is approximately 5,100 feet long and is believed to be the longest concrete arch bridge in the world.  The bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is also a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.  It was built to replace an older steel bridge that carried both car traffic and the tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad.  In the early 1960s the steel bridge was torn down, but the stone abutments still remain.  

A view of the beautiful bridge from the far shore.

The abutments date to an even earlier wooden covered bridge that was destroyed by fire by the Union Army during the Civil War to prevent the Southern Army from using it to cross the Susquehanna and head towards Washington.  The earlier structure was called the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge.  Well, the bridge I am standing on and photographing today has been recently restored in the Art Deco architectural style and won a historical award.  It received the Ralph Modjeski Award for Excellence in Transportation and Archaeology at the annual Historic Preservation Awards held by Preservation Pennsylvania.  

Photo for the Lancaster Newspaper showing all the Mayflies.

The lighting on the bridge was replaced with 65 new lights that replicate the fixtures that were in place when the bridge was opened in 1930.  The bridge also garnered quite a bit of press coverage this past spring when it had to be closed due to the amount of dead Mayflies that had accumulated on the bridge.  The bridge lights were turned off a few nights until the mayflies decided to depart the area.  Three motorcycle accidents were caused by the "Blizzard in June" before the bridge closed for some time.  Today the brige looks great and the refurbishing of the lights and concrete is spectacular.  This past year I photographed the bridge from another location and you can see the majestic structure from a few different position.  Neat bridge!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.