Does anyone know what railroad built the huge bridge across the Lehigh River just south of Lehigh Tannery PA? I saw the huge concrete bridge abutments, at least 4-6 of them, a short distance south of the parking lot on the D&L canal trail. The NS/Reading & Northern Line is on the opposite side of the river, east, and it looks like the bridge crossed above the D&L trail curving south. This must have been a HUGE 2-4 track bridge soaring high over the Lehigh River. I can't believe that I cannot find any info or pics of this bridge! Any info on this will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Lou
CNJ (if we get your description correctly)
I think what you may have seen are the remains of the Lehigh and New England bridge ove the Lehigh River. The L&NE was abandoned in the early 60's and the bridge removed not too long afterward.
Found a photo, does what's left resemble this?
Http://www.bridgehunter.com/pa/lehigh/bh46692/
PDN could probably answer the question, but he's wandering the SW US right now. The D&L trail where I was looking was ex CNJ (Central of PA) and Lehigh Valley was on the other side of the river. Coming southward out of White Haven, LV goes over the river on a massive deck truss bridge that is still in-service. The OP's initial description is a little funky.
You're talking about the piers at https://goo.gl/maps/QauX18qnu5ZEZSsX7 ?
Looking at the old topos at historicaerials.com, it seems to be a branch off the LV main.
I was just looking at Google Maps myself- the piers you're referencing, timz, don't look to be visible from any parking lot; they're around the bend from the trailhead (unless they really are tall!). Based on the picture another poster referenced, I'm thinking it was the shorter of the two bridges shown in that picture that the piers were for.
EDIT: I realized after looking closer at your reference, Flintlock76, that you're off- the OP's info puts him further north near Whitehaven. Here's a close-up of his coordinates:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lehigh+Tannery+Historic+Site/@41.0385001,-75.7605777,118m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c5007df51c5395:0xf0ae4f0db9aaf5bd!8m2!3d41.0384961!4d-75.7602365?hl=en
EDIT2: Scanning around the area with Google Satellite, not seeing any visible evidence of piers. Could be hiding in the trees, I suppose...
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
OK, if it's by White Haven then it's definately CNJ. On the Pennsylvania side the atlas I've got shows it as CNJ/LV and definately abandoned.
I had to do some guessin' from the original posters question. I've got railmaps that don't show roads or towns, excepting big ones, maps that show roads but not railroads, and nothing that shows Lehigh Tannery!
It's been a fun exercise though!
Go further south on the river, around the bend to head east and just before it bends south again there are three piers that appear to be quite tall. (I used the time-line to pick earlier satelite images to see the shadows. D&L Trail is on the south side of the river and an active track is on the north. There is evidence of an old ROW that splits north off the active track and curves south to cross the active track and aligns with the piers and then crosses the D&L trail to continue south.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Semper Vaporo Go further south on the river, around the bend to head east and just before it bends south again there are three piers that appear to be quite tall. (I used the time-line to pick earlier satelite images to see the shadows. D&L Trail is on the south side of the river and an active track is on the north. There is evidence of an old ROW that splits north off the active track and curves south to cross the active track and aligns with the piers and then crosses the D&L trail to continue south.
Both LV and CNJ had overlapping spaghetti in that area, Tannery to Penn Haven Junction, most was gone by WW2)
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