Rockville Bridge
Thursday, 8th June 2006 by Alex Turnbull
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.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
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.
https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=40.151817,-76.72431&z=15
yeah i live like right next to this bridge. i see it every day. my mom told me when i was like 7 that it was the longest stone arch bridge in the world. i thought it was pretty awesome.
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.
in response to Flababo’s comment, that was actually a different bridge for a different railway, however there are old piers of the previous Rockville Bridge directly beside it (upstream)
Upon doing some research, the Anping Bridge in China is one of the longest stone bridges in the world, but it’s not arched. So yes, Hbg is still the home of the longest stone ARCHED bridge in the world.
The statue erected was a scaled down version of the statue of liberty, which is no longer there, but once sat in the middle of the susquehanna river.
yes, the first statue that was placed there is no longer on the premises (perhaps it was indeed on the previous Rockville Bridge) but there was a new miniature Lady Liberty placed on one of the piers of the former Northern Central Railway’s bridge, as well as the Twin Towers on another pier.
This can be seen while traveling Rt. 322 on the way to Halifax
The Rockville bridge claims to be the longest stone arch RAILROAD bridge in the world. Not necessarily the longest stone arch bridge. This is the 3rd Rockville bridge. It was built next to #2 which was an iron trussed double track bridge and kept in service until #3 was finished. #3 carried 4 sets of tracks originally. Now only three. Bridge #1 was a wooden truss single track.