Photographs of the Bridges
Dunlap's Creek Bridge, Brownsville, Pennsylvania
The historic National Road from Maryland to Illinois crossed the Monongahela River in Brownsville in western Pennsylvania. The passing traffic that once made the town prosperous has long since been diverted onto high-speed highways, and you would have to go out of your way, or be lost, to end up down in the bottom of the valley in downtown Brownsville. However, if you choose to explore a little, you will find two historic bridges there.
Just before crossing the Monongahela, the National Road crossed a narrow gorge called Dunlaps Creek. The bridge over this gorge was built in 1839, and is famous as the first cast iron bridge in the United States. It was once a famous landmark of Brownsville. The image of hoop-skirted women with parasols strolling over its decorative iron arch was used in advertisements and postcards and can still be seen on display at the nearby Interstate 70 rest stop, among other inducements to visit the sights of southwestern Pennsylvania.
The once-proud cast iron arch bridge is still there, as attested by two historical information placards. However, the bridge has been mostly hidden behind twentieth-century steel and cement restorations and expansions. From the eastern side, you can barely see the patterned cast-iron curve of the arch on just one end of the bridge. Walking over it on Main Street, you would not even know you are on a historically important bridge, except for the placards.
The original National Road bridge across the Monongahela at Brownsville is no longer there. The current bridge, the Brownsville Bridge, was constructed in 1914. It is historically important as a very long (more than 900 feet), single span steel-through truss bridge. It has sidewalks, and displays builder plaques from the Fort Pitt Bridge Works on both ends.
In Chapter 9 of my book, Bridgespotting: A Guide to More Bridges that Connect People, Places, and Times, I wrote a detailed description of the historic bridges along the National Road between Baltimore and central Ohio, including both the Dunlaps Creek and Brownsville bridges.
