Home > Pennsylvania > Nicholson > Erie-Lackawanna Railroad, Tunkhannock Viaduct, Nicholson, Wyoming County, PA
B&W Photos
No images were found.
Data Pages
No images were found.
Photo Caption Pages
No images were found.
Item Title
Erie-Lackawanna Railroad, Tunkhannock Viaduct, Nicholson, Wyoming County, PA
LocationTunkhannock Viaduct,
Nicholson, PA
Find maps of Nicholson, PA
Created/Published
Documentation compiled after 1968.
Notes
Survey number HAER PA-87
Building/structure dates:
1915 initial construction
National Register Number: 77001203
Significance: When the Lackawanna Railroad's 39.6-mile Clarks Summit-Halstead Cutoff in northeastern Pennsylvania was dedicated on Saturday, November 6, 1915, the 2,375-foot-long, 240-foot-high Tunkhannock Viaduct stood at its west end. The total excavation for the cutoff had amounted to 13,318,000 cubic yards, more than half of that rock; into its substructures had gone 800,000 cubic yards of concrete. The Tunkhannock alone had required 1140 tons of steel, and 167,000 cubic yards of concrete containing 89,000 barrels or 1,093 carloads of cement. More than 50 years after its building, the Tunkhannock Viaduct still merits the title of largest concrete bridge in America, if not the world. It has been compared to the nearly two-thousand-year old Pont du Gard in southern France; mainly because of its tall proportions and high semicircular main arches. Its moldings serve to break the vertical lines. The veneer that was applied to exposed surfaces at the top of Tunkhannock in the 1940s has started to peel away.
Subjects
Railroad Bridges
Related Names
Cohen, A. Burton
Flickmir, David W.
Bush, Lincoln
Lackawanna Railroad Company
Lowe, Jet, Photographer
Collection
Historic American Engineering Record (Library of Congress)
Contents
Photograph caption(s):
1. GENERAL ELEVATION VIEW, LOOKING NORTHWEST, WITH BARN IN RIGHT FOREGROUND
2. GENERAL ELEVATION VIEW, LOOKING NORTHWEST
3. GENERAL ELEVATION VIEW, LOOKING SOUTHEAST, WITH CEMETERY IN FOREGROUND
4. DETAIL VIEW OF ARCHES, LOOKING SOUTH
5. DETAIL VIEW, LOOKING SOUTH, WITH 'LACKAWANNA RR' CLEARLY VISIBLE ON ARCH
6. DETAIL VIEW, LOOKING NORTH, SHOWING THREE ARCHES
7. DETAIL VIEW OF PIER WITH HOUSES ON LEFT
8. DETAIL VIEW OF PIER SHOWING SURFACE TREATMENT OF CONCRETE
9. GENERAL VIEW OF TRACK BED SHOWING RECESSES PROVIDED FOR SAFETY REASONS
10. GENERAL VIEW, LOOKING SOUTH, SHOWING TRACK BED ON TOP OF BRIDGE
Back to Nicholson, Pennsylvania
Cart