Railroads of Pennsylvania by Treese Lorett

Author:Treese, Lorett
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780811748872
Publisher: Stackpole Books

Kinzua Viaduct

Near the town of Mount Jewett stand the remains of one of Pennsylvania’s most impressive railroad artifacts: Kinzua (pronounced Kin-zoo) Bridge, or Viaduct, built to transport coal from land owned by the New York & Erie Railroad in Elk and Jefferson Counties to Buffalo, New York, where there was a ready market for about three million tons of coal per year, as well as excellent facilities for transshipment to the Midwest. As the bird flies, Buffalo was not so far away, so the Erie’s local subsidiary, the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad & Coal Company, managed to build a structure that enabled trains to “soar” over the valley of Kinzua Creek.

Because the Kinzua Creek flowed through a gorge that was three hundred feet deep and half a mile wide, the railroad had three choices: from the Erie’s main line station at Carrolton, New York, it could lay tracks that detoured around the valley; descended into the valley, where they would cross a bridge; or spanned the entire valley on one enormous viaduct. Gen. Thomas L. Kane promoted the third and boldest choice, and specifications for Kinzua Viaduct were drawn up by the Erie’s chief engineer, Octave Chanute. Another member of the self-taught generation of railroad engineers, Chanute had already built bridges across the Missouri River, as well as the elevated railway system in New York City. A firm called Clarke, Reeves & Company of Phoenixville was tapped to fabricate it.

The resulting viaduct was 301 feet high and 2,051 feet long, about 50 feet higher than the structure in the Peruvian Andes that had previously held the record as the world’s highest railroad viaduct. Constructed of iron, its twenty spans were supported by towers built on stone foundations. Kinzua Viaduct also gained the nation’s respect for having been built in less than four months after its foundations were prepared. It was completed in September 1882.

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