A Historic foot bridge over the Kiski River with a Unique Story

As you take River Road Pa 66  east out of leechburg Pa. you can not miss seeing a very uique  Steel Foot Bridge which goes over the Kiski River  to  the  little community of Hyde Park

But when you look at the piers which hold it it appears  to have held a much larger bridge at one time and you would be correct in your thinking.

At one time this was a railroad bridge  built in 1886 which connected trains across the Kiski from Leechburg  but this was before the massive Flood Protection Projects to keep Pittsburgh from flooding where put in place ,after a horrendous flood took many lives and  caused hundreds of  millions in damage in 1936 to Southwestern Pa

You see the problem was before the flood protection measures where put in place Higher up on the Conemaugh River which feeds the Kiski River  during the winter time massive sheets of ice would build on the river  and come down stream thru Leechburg and several times the railroad bridge was destroyed.

http://old.post-gazette.com/lifestyle/20030914herep2.asp

 

Finally in 1904 in an effort to keep the bridge from being wiped out by spring time flooding they put a train full of coal cars on it and weighted it down to hold it in place and of course this also failed and train was swept down stream.

 So then the only way across was a Ferry boat till the earlier  foot bridge was built in 1920  with the current bridge version being built in 1955 which is very unique to the area.

 With its 600 foot length. and fantastic photographic view This is one day trip well worth it to take about 45 minutes from Pittsburgh.