Bookstore now open

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Help support our site by visiting the Quintessential Pennsylvania Bookstore.  Here Doug and I will be listing books and other materials that we take along while discovering Pennsylvania.  It can be accessed here!

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John Eisenhower Bridge

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When you explore the back roads around Gettysburg, you'll most likely find some great things.  Just behind the Eisenhower Farm on Red Rock Road - and not that long of a stroll from Sachs Covered Bridge - is an 1886 iron truss bridge named after Dwight Eisenhower's son, John.  John Eisenhower was an officer in the United States Army, served as the US Ambassador to Belgium, and was a military historian. The John Eisenhower Bridge crosses Willoughby Run, and its use is limited to bicycles and pedestrians.  The 84-foot-long bridge was designed and constructed by Gibert & Smith.  It is a Pratt-through truss design.  Flood waters severely damaged the bridge in 1996.  Two years later, the bridge was completely restored.  In 2012, Adams County completed a project  fully refurbishing the bridge deck. Willoughby Run Like the nearby Sachs Covered Bridge, the Eisenhower Bridge is considered haunted.  It is known locally as the " Suicide Bridge ;" gho...
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Inwood Iron Bridge - Lebanon County, Pennsylvania

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  While the number of historic iron truss and metal truss bridges has been dwindling over the years due to several factors, occasionally a bridge will be preserved for its historical value. Such is the case of the Inwood Iron Bridge, which was built in 1899 and located near Lickdale, Pennsylvania. The Inwood Iron Bridge was fabricated by the Pittsburgh Bridge Company and erected by Nelson and Buchanan of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. It is historically significant as one of the oldest surviving Pennsylvania thru truss highway bridges in Pennsylvania. Early examples of Pennsylvania (Petit) thru-truss highway bridges from before the 20th Century were not common as the design was more often used for railroad bridges. Only a handful of such roadway bridges have been identified around Pennsylvania, making the Inwood Iron Bridge more historically significant. The 151-foot-long Inwood Iron Bridge crossed Swatara Creek and was located not far from Swatara State Park in Lebanon County, Pennsy...
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Union Canal Tunnel Park

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    A canal linking Philadelphia with the Susquehanna River across southern Pennsylvania had been in the making for quite some time. This eventually gave birth to the Union Canal, which was built between Middletown, located along the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, with Reading on the Schuylkill River, which winds its way to Philadelphia. During the canal's construction, several land features had to be dealt with, and in the case of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, it was more practical to build a tunnel through a hill than to build a series of locks. This gave birth to the Union Canal Tunnel. The Union Canal Tunnel was a critical link connecting the eastern and western branches of the 82-mile Union Canal, which was built through the ridge dividing the Quittapahilla Creek and Clark's Run just northwest of the center city of Lebanon, Pennsylvania. It is the oldest existing tunnel in the United States, dug through 729 feet of slate rock which contained veins of limestone. Drilling for ...
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