P&RRR Bridge #28 at the Delaware Canal:
New Canal Bridge (Shown on Right Side of Photo):
This Linford R. Craven postcard (mailed March 10, 1913) shows both the old (1875-1912) canal bridge (on the left side of photo) and the new bridge which is to replace it (on the right side of the photo). The position of both the old and new bridges over the canal was to be precisely the same both vertically and horizontally and the work had to be done without disrupting train service. This required that the new bridge be completely built mounted on wheels. Engineering News Record, Issue Dated May 3, 1913 provides a detailed description of how the canal bridge was "recently" replaced. It was built on rollers and roller tracks alongside the original 1875 railroad. The railroad tracks shown in the photo are the old tracks. The new bridge had not yet been rolled into place when the photo was made. These original tracks started to turn left immediately at the far end of the bridge. The new construction extended the embankment on the right side, with the build-out gradually increasing up to about 50 feet at the location where it reached the Delaware River. The tracks as they exist today look quite different from those shown in the photo, because they extend for a longer straight-line distance away from the canal bridge.
Engineering News Record...
The bridge was designed, fabricated and erected under the direction of the engineering department of the Philadelphia & Reading Railway Company:
William Hunter, Chief Engineer
W.B. Riegner, Engineer of Bridges
The bridge was fabricated and erected by the Phoenix Bridge Company:
John Sterling Deans, Chief Engineer
R.S. Foulds, Engineer of Erection
W.H. Schaemcker, Superintendent of Erection
P&RRR Bridge #29 at the Delaware River:
In the distance you can see the Delaware River. On the left edge of the photo you can see the near-shore derrick at River Road where the new Delaware River Bridge was concurently under construction. There are several railroad cars parked on the old tracks, and used to dump fill material to extend the embankment on the right side. There is a wooden shack for workers at this upper level. A large construction yard (hidden from view in the photo) was located on the right side of the railroad embankment along the water line and extending several hundred feet into Macclesfield Park. The four dark horizontal lines on the lower right of the photo (in the vicinity of the telephone pole) are the 4-wire electric power lines which remained in use along the canal through the 1900s.
Craven's Yardley Site (Photographs, Maps, History/Geography, Craven Biography)