3-Inch Field Caisson - Columbia, PA
N 40° 01.983 W 076° 30.375
18T E 371486 N 4432512
This artillery display is next to an official PHMP historic blue marker. The caisson is at the end or the beginning of the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge, depending if you are coming or going.
Waymark Code: WM8Z1R
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 06/02/2010
Views: 9
The significance of this gun is lost to me. This is a famous Civil War era area not WW I or WW II, of which this gun might have been used. There is a 1902 inscription in the steel near the breech I think it is called but it says 3 inch field U.S. Model of 1902. Off to the side it reads Midvale Steel. The Driggs-Seabury Ordinace Company in Sharon, PA apparently made this type of cannon. The big gun rests on wooden wheels. I was unsuccessful in determining when or where this type of ordinance was used. I did notice the business end of this cannon is aimed directly at the foot of the bridge, the same spot where the Confederate would have emerged upon advancing over the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge into Columbia had the Union army not intentionally burned the covered bridge which would have allowed them access. Of course this gun was manufactured almost 40 years after the war had ended.
Across the bridge are two 55 mm guns, part of a non-specific war memorial. There are other artillery displays all about town. This one is located on a patch of green next to the old Lincoln Highway.
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