Tunkhannock Viaduct
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 The Tunkhannock Viaduct looking east. |
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| Crosses | Tunkhannock Creek |
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| Locale | Nicholson, Pennsylvania |
| Design | Deck arch bridge |
| Longest span | Ten spans of 180 feet |
| Total length | 2375 feet |
| Width | Two tracks |
| Clearance below | 240 feet |
| Opening date | 1915 |
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Tunkhannock Viaduct is a concrete deck arch bridge that spans Tunkhannock Creek in Nicholson, Pennsylvania. The bridge, containing about 167,000 cubic yards of concrete and 1240 tons of steel, is the biggest and most impressive concrete bridge in America. It was built in 1915 by the Lackawanna Railroad and was designed by Abraham Burton Cohen.
The bridge was built as part of the Clark's Summit-Hallstead Cutoff, which was part of an ambitious program of the Lackawanna Railroad to revamp a winding and hilly system. This rerouting was built between Scranton, Pennsylvania and Binghamton, New York. This bridge and the Martins Creek Viaduct near Kingsley were considered the engineering wonder of their time. All 13 piers were excavated to bedrock, which was up to 138 feet below ground level. Almost half of the bulk of the bridge is underground.
[edit] References
- Plowden, David (2002). Bridges: The Spans of North America. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company.
- Tunkhannock Viaduct. Historic American Engineering Record. Retrieved on 2006-07-02.
- Tunkhannock Viaduct. ASCE History and Heritage of Civil Engineering. Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
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