Scattered clouds
Scattered clouds
March 16, 2014
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Finally it’s making sense

Richard Plunz


While no one involved with this issue denied that health and safety issues demanded that the bridge be restored, especially after 60 years of deferred maintenance, those who questioned the need for destruction could never quite figure out why PennDOT was so adamant. Those who raised questions were many, including the Preservation League of New York State, Preservation Pennsylvania, the National Historic Bridge Foundation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Upper Delaware Preservation Coalition and the Friends of the Pond Eddy Bridge. No one could figure out why a new bridge could be so important, at a cost based on PennDOT’s varied estimates of between $9.5 and $16 million, when the option of reasonable restoration was so much more rational given both the economic and historic resources of the area. Why spend much more on the new bridge than the combined worth of all of the property on the Pennsylvania side—especially given the economic value of the historic bridge, which has been a tourist landmark since its opening in 1903? Together with its historic context in both Pond Eddy, NY and Pennsylvania, it could easily be considered an important part of the economic visioning initiatives surrounding Route 97’s designation as the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway. But all such arguments fell on deaf ears in Pennsylvania. Ultimately, even the New York State Historic Preservation Office, the legally mandated evaluator for New York, became opposed to the project and finally withdrew in 2010 from PennDOT’s review process in frustration.

