Skip to main content

VIDEO captures unloved, unowned Reynolds Bridge reduced to rubble

There was a big bang in a small town in the US state of Pennsylvania this month when a fragmentation explosion brought down the 100-year-old Reynolds Road Bridge. It was the end to the unloved bridge near Factoryville, population around 1,500. Factoryville is notable for a lack of factories ever since the one and only plant, a wool-into-cloth factory, closed down several years after it opened in the 1800s. Local residents were not sorry to see the felling of the 40m long, reinforced concrete arch deck
May 18, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
There was a big bang in a small town in the US state of Pennsylvania this month when a fragmentation explosion brought down the 100-year-old Reynolds Road Bridge.

It was the end to the unloved bridge near Factoryville, population around 1,500. Factoryville is notable for a lack of factories ever since the one and only plant, a wool-into-cloth factory, closed down several years after it opened in the 1800s.

Local residents were not sorry to see the felling of the 40m long, reinforced concrete arch deck bridge over a Canadian Pacific Railway line. For three years the ugly bridge deep within the beautiful Endless Mountain region of north eastern Pennsylvania had been closed because it was crumbling, not just into disrepair, but literally disintegrating.

Metres and metres of rebar along the pedestrian way were laid bare where nature had eroded away concrete. Parts of the structure, named after one of the first settlers in the region, Captain Robert Reynolds, had fallen into the ravine below. Earlier this month the rest of the bridge very quickly followed, when implosion subcontractor CDI shrouded the bridge and ended 100 years of history, and some recent confusion.

The bridge fell into disrepair because it also fell into a legal crack – no person, agency, company or local authority would acknowledge ownership, leaving the bridge in limbo, according to local media. When the old railway company, whose rail lines ran underneath the structure, went bankrupt, the bridge reportedly was not sold off with other assets and this went unnoticed for years, until repairs became urgent in the past decade or so.

Demolition was paid for by the Canadian Pacific Railroad, who now owns the rail lines that were running underneath the demolished bridge, according to local TV station WNEP.

%$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal Click here Visit crumbling bridge demolished Page false http://wnep.com/2015/05/14/crumbling-bridge-demolished/ false false%> to see local media reports on the bridge’s condition just before demolition.

Related Content

  • Successful explosive demolition of old bridge in US state of Missouri
    December 16, 2013
    A successful explosive demolition has been carried out of the Hurricane Deck Bridge in the US state of Missouri. The Hurricane Deck Bridge carried Missouri Route 5 over Lake of the Ozarks and measured 695m long. The structure was no longer able to cope with the traffic volumes it was carrying and the Missouri Department of Transport (MODOT) opted to build a new delta frame bridge to replace it. Work started on the new bridge in 2012 and this was opened to traffic in September 2013. The steel span Hurricane
  • VIDEO: Never give a queen a lift
    May 27, 2016
    A driver in Wales drove around for a day with an estimated 20,000 unwelcome passengers until the problem got to be too evident. The video shows the car of the 65-year-old grandmother, finally parked in the small town of Haverfordwest, literally buzzing with bees. Apparently, a queen bee got stuck on the vehicle and her community decided to follow the car and stick to it as well. It took two members of the Pembrokeshire Beekeepers' Association, a park ranger and some local people to coax the travelers
  • VIDEO: Kangaroo takes out cyclist down under
    July 25, 2016
    It caught all the cyclists by surprise when a young bounding kangaroo decided to hurl itself at the peloton during a bicycle race in Australia. A fellow racer trailing behind took the video. The targeted cyclist was severely bruised from hitting the deck and he needed stitches. But the marauding kangaroo apparently died from its injuries when it slammed into the bike at a right angle. Cyclists being taken out by kangaroos is more common than most non-Australians would think. Click here to see one cycl
  • VIDEO: The ‘Hey! Watch out!’ traffic lights system
    September 5, 2016
    Time for a taxi ride around New York City, but back in 1928. Sit back and take a cruise, albeit tongue-in-cheek, around some of central New York’s better streets. But look closely. Rail lines were a prominent feature of those wider city streets as cars and trams mixed it along the boulevards, with people happily running between vehicles any which way. The roads surface looked as if there were no wear course, but simply a base course.