Community members along the Delaware River are planning a celebration of the historic and endangered Skinners Falls Bridge on Sunday, January 12.
In 2019, PennDOT shut down the Skinners Falls Bridge to vehicle traffic, citing safety concerns due to its deteriorating condition. The Skinners Falls Bridge crosses the Delaware River, connecting the communities of Milanville, PA, and Skinners Falls, NY.
Now, more than five years later, the bridge has further decayed to the point where it can no longer be maintained as a historic or culturally important landmark, according to PennDOT. PennDOT has announced plans to demolish the bridge using explosives.
Local advocates continue to insist the bridge can and should be preserved.
We spoke to Barbara Arrindell of Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, artist and advocate Cynthia Nash, and our own Kathy Geary, who produced the radio version of Nash’s play about the bridge “The Crossing,” about their efforts to save it.
Image Credit: PennDOT
As a young man with a love of structural engineering I marveled at the erector set like
appearance of this beautiful structure.
Before the first time I paddled below the spans I donned my life preserver like the sign said.
That was fifty years or so ago and my children have also had the privilege.
That bridge took about a year to build at the turn of the last century.
So why ,five years worth of decision making to tear it down.
There is no reason this bridge cannot be restored other than the will to fund the project
When I looked at that bridge I saw the beauty and thoughts of permanence.
To me it just looks like it belongs there, In that beautiful place it was erected.
So many happy memories of that beautiful bridge. I’m crying for a bridge, and the loss of the days of old. Why do we need to eliminate it completely? Build your ugly new bridge downriver and keep this for the ones who appreciate the feelings this timepiece evokes. In remembrance of simpler times and generations now gone.