Dan Cupper, Rockville Bridge: Rails Across The Susquehanna (Halifax, Pa.: Withers Publishing, 2002) 112pp., illustrated (some col.), maps, plans, $29.95.
More than a century after it was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Rockville Bridge continues to carry mainline rail traffic over the Susquehanna River. This stone and concrete structure, the third bridge to stand at this site, has weathered ice and flood, corporate bankruptcy and merger, and changes in usage, yet it remains a monument to American railroading.
In Rockville Bridge: Rails Across the Susquehanna, noted railroad historian Dan Cupper details the history of the three bridges that have borne the name "Rockville Bridge." While the book concentrates on the present bridge, the most famous and longest-standing of the three, the previous structures are described in great detail.
The first Rockville Bridge was a single-track wooden Howe truss bridge that opened to traffic in 1849. In addition to being a fire hazard (portions of the bridge burned in 1868), the bridge became a bottleneck as railroad traffic increased. In 1877 an iron bridge replaced the earlier structure. A loss of confidence in iron bridges combined with a continuing increase in the weight of railroad locomotives lead to the decision to replace that structure with the current bridge. The book describes the present bridge from its 1900-1902 construction to the 1997 collapse of a portion of the downstream sidewall and the ensuring repairs.
The author debunks two oft-told myths that have developed regarding the current bridge. First, the bridge is properly described as a stone and concrete bridge and is, therefore, technically not the longest stone arch bridge in the world. Second, the bridge's 48 arches do not represent the states of the Union at the time the bridge was built; the United States flag bore only 45 stars when the bridge opened to traffic in 1902.
The need for a dormitory to house Dickinson School of Law students was recognized as early as 1898, twenty years before the Law School moved from its original home in Emory Hall, located at the corner of South West and West Pomfret Streets, into its current home in Trickett Hall on South College Street in Carlisle.