LETTER: Bridge builders were brilliant
As you noted recently, record low water on the Yough Lake exposed the magnificent three-arched bridge that had been Route 40 near Confluence. Tourists flocked to see it.
It was built of sandstone during 1815-18 on the Cumberland Road, later the National Road. According to Robert Bruce’s “The National Road,” which was published in 1916, it was named Big Crossings “by the old Pike boys.”
Bruce added that there is “a large dressed stone in the wall of this bridge above the surface of the road and near the eastern end, bears the inscription ‘Kinkead, Beck & Evans, builders, July 4th, 1818.'”
Locals enthusiastically celebrated the dedication. Four politicians spoke. President James Monroe attended. With the construction of the Yough Dam, the lake covered the bridge in 1940. For me, it is shocking that after 206 years and 84 years underwater it is still there. Do our steel bridges last more than 50 years? The builders were brilliant with their labor-intensive technology.
J.K. Folmar I
California