Valley Girl Views: The Bridges of Milton

The Bridges Of Milton, Pennsylvania

First there were covered bridges, starting in around 1823. Those were lost in a flood. Then they were replaced. And then then those were washed away a flood. And for 5 or so years, there was no bridge between Milton and West Milton. Then there was the new metal bridge, which was rotting and crumbling less than 25 years after it was built. That was followed by a concrete bridge, which outlasted the iron bridge, lasting more than 50 years, before it collapsed. Milton is hard on it's bridges.

In 1889, the Covered Bridge at Milton was once again swept away by the floodwaters. For the next 5 years, the only bridge Milton would have was a train bridge that people were not allowed to use .

In 1894 the town was debating between building a wooden bridge, and an iron bridge. The iron bridge won out

The bridge in the font is the railroad bridge. In the background you can make out the steel bridge, crossing where the buildings are on the island.

There had been some discussion of moving the bridge, so that it would connect at Broadway. The property that had been at Broadway (an old stage coach stop) had been lost in the Great Fire, and the owner had no plans to rebuild. But concerns over the amount of traffic at that intersection won out, and the new metal bridge, which looked very much like a modern railroad bridge, was built.

Bicyclists On The New Iron Bridge, to show that it really wasn't a railroad bridge.

The new metal Bridge was completed sometime before October 1896, when the Miltonian reported that some boys made trouble for buggy passengers "over the new bridge" one night recently, and were fined about ten dollars for their foolishness.

September 1894

And in less than 25 years, the metal bridge was falling apart. The bridge was in such poor condition that the metal could be "broken with a stick", and it was sometimes closed to traffic when it was periodically deemed unsafe.

In 1922 the County Commissioners decided the Milton bridge had to be replaced.

Again, many in Milton lobbied to have the bridge moved, wanting it to connect to Broadway instead of Mahoning Street. The argument did not seem to change in 1922.

Again, the change was rejected, and the bridge today remains at Mahoning Street, not Broadway.

In July of 1925, the new concrete arch bridge was completed. Or, Opened. The papers reported that it was open in July of 1925, but in May of 1926, the official grand opening cermeony was postponed, as the west lane was still not completed.

When the concrete bridge was built, sidewalks were added to the island as well.

This bridge held up longer than most, but in In 1987, Milton was once again getting a new bridge.

They just weren't going to get it quite fast enough. Possibly because the pylons for the new bridge changed the water current, putting more pressure on the already weakened and failing bridge, on the afternoon of Friday March 27th, the concrete bridge collapsed.

Amazingly, no one was injured. A motorcyclist had crossed, felt the bridge drop and he stopped traffic, just before the span fell to the river.

Years prior, when Milton needed this bridge built to replace the last one that was failing, there was a bit of a.. dispute, over Watsontown getting a bridge to White Deer. It was thought to be a waste of money, since it would serve so few people, and it was felt that replacing the bridge at Milton would be a better use of the funds. As it worked out, both towns got a bridge, and 50 years later, we were all glad Watsontown had won there battle, as we all detoured there to cross.

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