[PRCo] PRR New Brighton relocation (1926) and nearby implications

[Derrick J Brashear]

In 1926, the Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne and Chicago was relocated off 5th
Avenue in New Brighton to the (east) bank of the Beaver River. For that
to happen, a new bridge (the current bridge) was constructed, and the old
bridge vacated and reused as a highway bridge.

The old bridge has since been replaced and route 18 crosses from the old
Winky's in New Brighton to the south end of Beaver Falls on the new
bridge.

The upshot of the following information is that I believe some book has a
published shot of an old road bridge partially removed and the new PRR
bridge constructed and in place; I don't remember the name of or where I
saw such and I'm wondering if someone else does.

--

Anyhow, as far as this goes, I know or reasonably believe the following
things:

1) Beaver Valley Traction trolley service was disrupted and temporarily
bustituted while the bridge situation was sorted out:
http://www.amcap.org/history/beavercnty/bvmc.html

2) I do not know, but believe based on the above, and the map cited
below, that there used to be a road bridge to the south of the old
railroad bridge, which is about at the current location of the route 18
bridge. See this map on the Maptech USGS historical map site:
http://historical.maptech.com/getImage.asp?fname=bevr04ne.jpg&state=PA
I'm guessing the short bridge over the P&LE which I don't remember well
and was removed I guess about 10 years ago was either a stub of this
bridge, or built when it was removed, but this is rampant speculation and
should be treated as such. (See the terraserver URL in the Patterson
Heights comments below)

3) Several shots of the 10th Street Bridge between Beaver Falls and New
Brighton are on this page:
http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~jmohney/new_page_189.htm
The bridge was recently removed but the piers stand. It was standing in
the mid 90s when the aerial photos on Terraserver were made, upper right of:
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?t=1&s=11&x=1393&y=11275&z=17&w=2

Note that at least one post card shows a trolley on that bridge, but it
was not, of course, the bridge removed for the new PRR bridge.

4) the P&LE station was relocated to accomodate this move. There are a
series of pictures on Garry Mittner's page showing the station being moved
to the riverside and scooted under the PRR here:
http://community-1.webtv.net/@HH!27!78!4B5AEC67BBF4/mittner/THEHOMEOFGARY/

5) The streetcar incline serving Patterson Heights was abandoned around
the same time these relocations were done.
http://www.bchistory.org/beavercounty/BeaverCountyTopical/TrolleysandStreetcars/PatersonInclineMW83/PattersoninclineMW83.html
describes the incline. The aforementioned USGS historical map shows the
incline trackage ending in Patterson Heights.
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?t=2&s=11&x=1393&y=11275&z=17&w=2
shows an obvious cut up the hill where it was.

Entirely unrelated to the bridge relocation, but germaine to both the
traction company and the PRR were the floods of 1913 and 1936.

6) The aforementioned USGS historical map shows a bridge between Fallston
and Bridgewater. This would seem to correspond to accounts of the old
"Sharon Bridge", which was built as a toll bridge, bought by Beaver
Valley Traction as a route for trolleys to Beaver from New Brighton,
damaged by the 1913 flood and repaired, used to its detriment as a detour
when the Bridgewater to Rochester road bridge burned in 1931, closed in
1933, and again partially destroyed by flood in 1936 (and not rebuilt)
http://www.bchistory.org/beavercounty/BeaverCountyCommunities/Bridgewater/BoroofBridgewater/BridgewaterMSU84.html
http://www.bchistory.org/beavercounty/BeaverCountyTopical/Disasters/1936Flood2/1936Flood.html

One source said it was closed after being used as a detour as a
"punishment to speeding motorists":
http://www.bchistory.org/beavercounty/BeaverCountyTopical/BridgesandRoads/BCBridgeFacts.html

The piers stand:
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?t=1&s=10&x=2795&y=22536&z=17&w=2
and there's still a disused underpass under the railroad tracks just to
the east.