Small parks in the works to fete bridge
BELLE VERNON – The village of Webster was an idyllic community in the late 19th century, where steamboat captains built mansions amid rows of white picket fences and orchards.
Pittsburgh residents were known to take excursion boats to the town in Rostraver Township, Westmoreland County, to sunbathe and relax in ornate hotels until a giant steel mill gave birth to the borough of Donora across the Monongahela River.
“Webster was directly downwind from the mill and its pollution; conditions only worsened in 1915 when the Donora Zinc Works opened,” states one of five new signs the state Department of Transportation created for the village and borough to honor the Donora-Webster Bridge, which was imploded last year.
“Riverboat captains were familiar with the effect of industry on other towns along the river and they (along with anyone else who could afford it) put their homes on the market and left town,” the sign paying tribute to Webster’s history states.
The sign goes on to tell the story of the smog disaster in October 1948 that killed more than 20 people and sickened thousands of others, blamed, in part, on noxious fumes from the zinc operation.
These signs, along with relics saved from the bridge, will find new life as centerpieces of small parks both communities are planning to create to honor the historic span.
Rostraver is still determining how it will display two mangled sections of the steel bridge with large stones from a bridge pier that PennDOT saved for the municipality in Belle Vernon Area School District, said Tom Godzak, the township’s road supervisor. The park might be created along a short section of Kline Street in the area where the bridge ramp met Route 906.
Meanwhile, Donora hopes to do something similar to honor the bridge at a grassy lot the borough owns at 14th Street and Meldon Avenue, Mayor Don Pavelko said.
PennDOT reached an agreement with the state Historical and Museum Commission to save the bridge parts and create the story boards because the span was on the National Register of Historic Places for the way in which it was pinned together in 1908 in a style used by the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Two plaques that were at each entrance to the span that opened in 1908 also were given to the municipalities. Rostraver has tentative plans to donate its plaque to the township fire department in Webster, Godzak said.
Donora Historical Society archivist Brian Charlton said three of the signs regarding the town’s story are on display in the group’s Smog Museum at 595 McKean Ave., Donora.
“I think they did a great job of taking our resources and turning them into an attractive and informative display,” Charlton said.