Cumberland Valley Railroad - Harrisburg Connection

When driving your car from Harrisburg to Chambersburg you can expect an hour drive. By train in the late 19th century it would take four hours. It was a whole different story if you traveled by buggy or horseback, which were the only other viable means to travel as I-81 and the PA Turnpike weren't built and the canals didn't connect those points of travel.

I have been amazed by the impact the Cumberland Valley Railroad had on Central and Eastern Pennsylvania. Not only did it reduce time for travelers, but it connect the goods grown and developed in Central PA within itself and beyond. This rail had significant accomplishments.

"If a railroad is made from Harrisburg to this place [Carlisle], we can leave Carlisle at nine o'clock in the morning and reach Philadelphia at six o'clock in the evening…. A farmer can put his produce into a railroad car in the morning and the same evening have it on Broad Street, Philadelphia, and that, too, at one half of the expense it would cost him to have it taken by wagon."

CVRR Interpretive Sign

By November 1837, the Cumberland Valley Railroad opened for travel from White Hill (near Harrisburg) to Chambersburg. A bridge of the span of approximately 1,200 feet requires major capital. The newly started, CVRR would have to wait until January 16, 1939 to cross the river.

This railroad bridge was built from Lemoyne (or Bridgeport at the time) to Harrisburg and connected the coal trains from the north. The design was a Town truss double-deck wooden bridge. You can see it in the "Interpretive Sign" image--lower photograph. Inside the lower level of the covered bridge was a two-lane roadway, and the roof was for the railroad. Unfortunately sparks from a locomotive set the wooden covered bridge on fire in 1844. One man lost his life. Four of the easternmost spans survived so the bridge was rebuilt in 1846 and renovated and upgraded in 1856, 1872 and 1885.

By 1887, a fourth bridge replaced the structure. A single track iron deck truss bridge was erected which had the strength to carry dozens of trains daily as was the norm of the late 19th century. You can see the design in the "Interpretive Sign" photo above.



The fifth bridge at this location if you are counting, and the last bridge the CVRR built over the Susquehanna River, is the concrete arch bridge we currently see near Harrisburg. It was completed in December 1916. It has 43 massive segmental main arch spans, plus two more concrete deck arch spans at the western end of the bridge.

Within seventy years the Cumberland Valley Railroad had to replace the bridge that crossed the Susquehanna from Lemoyne to Harribsurg four times due to fires, floods, and the growing weight of trains.

CVRR in foreground. Pennsylvania Reading in background. In far distance is I-83.

Another interesting thing to note is that the CVRR competed with B&O, Western Maryland and P&R. In the photo above you can see the P&R run parallel with the CVRR here in Harrisburg.

In later blogs I will touch on topics that will surely make you appreciate the rich history this bridge provides. You can see more photos of this bridge here.

SOURCES: "History of the Cumberland Valley Railroad" Paul J. Westenhaeffer, copyright 1979

History of Dauphin, Cumberland, Perry, Bedford, Adams and Franklin Counties, PA" I.D. Rupp, copyright 1846.

http://cvrr.org/
http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-1B5