Roebling's Delaware Aqueduct - Laxawaxen PA
Posted by: nomadwillie
N 41° 29.013 W 074° 59.028
18T E 501352 N 4592438
Crosses the Delaware River between Laxawaxen PA and Minisink Ford, NY is the oldest existing wire bridge in the US.
Waymark Code: WMD6X9
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 11/28/2011
Views: 6
Opening in 1847 as an aqueduct carrying water, and connecting two parts of the Delaware & Hudson Canal (D & H), it has since been converted to carry automotive traffic and pedestrians.
The bridge was designed by and built under the supervision of John A. Roebling, who would design the Brooklyn Bridge twenty years later.
The bridge has several designations, including a National Historic Landmark and a National Civil Engineering Landmark.
The Delaware Aqueduct provided an important transportation link between the Pennsylvania's coalmines and New York's booming industrial marketplace. It is the earliest surviving work of John A. Roebling, who designed the Brooklyn Bridge 30 years later. The cable anchorage system first used on this project was also used on the Brooklyn Bridge. The aqueduct is patterned after Roebling's design of the Pennsylvania Canal over the Allegheny River, and is the oldest metal strand cable suspension bridge still standing in the U.S.
Built as a suspended aqueduct for barges to cross above the Delaware River, the structure was used for this purpose until 1898. The aqueduct was then dewatered and its oak- timber trough was converted to a highway toll bridge.
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