Rockville Bridge
Here’s the longest stone arch bridge in the world, the Rockville Bridge in Pennsylvania (Wikipedia page). It was opened in 1902 and (as you can clearly see on the linked Google map) carries heavy railroad traffic to this day.
There’s a great-old postcard of the bridge at Wikipedia which claims the record of “longest stone bridge”. However the Anping Bridge in China is also made of stone, and has been around much, much longer.
It seems that there truly is no end to the number of possible records to be broken.
Thanks to Jonathan Hoppe and RJ Marquette.
Cool! I’ve seen that bridge many times while crossing the Suquenhanna River on RT 81 which is directly below, just did not know it was a world record holder.
BTW, also note the infamous Three Mile Island nuclear power station just a bit due south.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Great shot! China has a huge number of old bridges. Unfortunately, many are getting torn down in the name of “progress/modernity.”
If you zoom in, about a third of way from the west bank of the river, you’ll see two arches that are lighter than the others. About 10 years ago, part of the bridge crumbled, spilling a couple cars with coal into the river. The lighter section is the repaired section. I think the repair used similar rocks in order to keep the bridge looking as original as possible.
If you look to the north, you can see the remnants piers from the ‘original’ Rockville bridge. On one of the ones close to the eastern bank, someone erected a statue.
That train that is crossing the bridge is carrying truck trailers (also known as intermodal) and is led by four locomotives from Norfolk Southern Railroad.