Photographs from a Sunday Afternoon - Location 4

LOCATION: William Black Homestead
I stumbled upon learning of this property from the National Register of Historic Places (where I look for older bridges). Since this building is near my neighborhood of New Cumberland, I decided to seek it out.

Little is known of William Black except he was a Scottish immigrant and acquired the 267 tract of Lowther Manor in 1774 and a house was built on the property in 1776. Nor is much known about the four generations of his descendants who lived on the property located on Drexel Hill Park Road.

View from the Drexel Hill Park Road

FACTS:

• Exact Date of Construction: 1776 
• Added to NRHP: July 20, 1977 
• NRHP Reference Number: 77001159 
• House: 
• 2.5 story, 3 bay, fieldstone 
• 1 story kitchen added to east gable end 
• uncoursed fieldstone walls that are 18" thick 
• Slate roof 
• Windows are 6 over 9 light sash o first floor; 6 over 6 on second floor 
• Restored in 1960 by Leon Neefe 
• In 1975 a large 1-story, frame wing was added to the west gable wall which houses a modern kitchen, dining room, etc. 
• William Black constructed a schoolhouse near the house which was in use until 1850 
• This home was the northern most point reached by any major Confederate force during the Civil War. Interesting tidbit: Confederate cavalry under Lt. General R.S. Ewell captured a Union courier on the property while reconnoitering the defenses of Harrisburg. The courier posed as a "local yokel" and was released the following day. 

SOURCE:https://www.dot7.state.pa.us/ce_imagery/phmc_scans/H001155_01H.pdf

Railroads and Bridgeport (now Lemoyne)

A few days ago, I was searching out the tracks of the old CVRR line in Lemoyne, PA. What I came across were relics of yesterday's railroads. Most of the tracks were torn out, but bridges and out buildings still stood giving hints of what use to be.

360 degree shot standing at 40.247852,-76.890175 GPS Coordinates

Northern Central Railway bridge

As you drive up Market Street from the Susquehanna River, you go under three girder bridges. The first (farthest east) carried Northern Central Railway up north. This bridge is still in use. 

CVRR (PRR) bridges that would take trains to Enola's yard.

The next one is a dual girder. This bridge is obviously not in use as the tracks have been removed.

Most western of the three girder bridges.

The last girder bridge is still in use. 


After you drive under these three bridges you see a Keystone marker that explains Lemoyne was formerly named Bridgeport. It was also known as Riverton before that, but was changed. Incorporated in 1905, Lemoyne (Bridgeport) was a hub for the Cumberland Valley Railroad.


Here is a map from 1872 that shows many rail lines converging at Bridgeport. This is before the Philadelphia & Reading line made its way into the area. But, the Northern Central was in existence and paralleled the Susquehanna River. Although there is no sign of the J Tower, later called Lemo, one can see the need for a tower. This photo shows how many tracks filled this area. Notice the tower in the center an smoke stack to the right.


In this photograph you can see the tower and the smoke stack a little closer. The tower now exists at the train museum in Strasburg, PA. 

If you go to this page http://d_cathell.tripod.com/lemo.html and scroll down to the third photo the caption explains that until a curved steel bridge was built in 1901, the Northern Central trains would have to bring their trains around the tracks in the foreground and then travel in reverse across the CVRR bridge. They did this for 50 years!


I have taken a huge guess in laying out what I believe were the lines.

Feel free to comment on any additional thoughts, guesses, facts, or corrections.


SOURCES and suggested reading:
http://www.west2k.com/pastations/cumberland.shtml
http://www.railroadsignals.us/harris/harris.htm#the_Ex_Reading_Depot_in_Camp_Hill.__
http://d_cathell.tripod.com/lemo2.html
http://lemoynepa.com/documents/LemoyneBook.pdf

Railroads and White Hill (now Camp Hill)

White Hill, PA? Where is that??? 
My interest in local history and railroads brought me to this question as I learned of a Cumberland Valley Railroad station located west of the Susquehanna River.

Westenhaffer's "History of the Cumberland Valley Railroad" started this adventure. He stated the Cumberland Valley Railroad opened for travel from White Hill to Carlisle in August, 1837. By November of the same year it connected to Chambersburg. I gathered White Hill was west of Harrisburg before crossing the river. Bridgeport was Lemoyne's former name so that wasn't it. New Cumberland was too far to the south.

To my surprise, Camp Hill was the town formerly known as White Hill. Here's the facts on the town's naming from Wikipedia:

The name Camp Hill is believed to stem from a split in the congregation of a Peace Church, located west of the current borough. One faction of the church began meeting outdoors, on a hill. Prior to the American Civil War, the area was known locally as White Hill, which served as a stop along the Cumberland Valley Railroad between Harrisburg and Carlisle. During the Civil War, the Battle of Sporting Hill became the northernmost engagement of the Gettysburg campaign, which took place at Camp Hill in late June 1863. Camp Hill was incorporated as a borough on November 10, 1885 from East Pennsboro Township.

Back to the railroads...
If you live around Camp Hill, you discover two sets of tracks impede your travels from north to south and vice versa. Today, the one set of tracks is used by Norfolk Southern. The other set is idle. There is talk of using the tracks for Corridor One which would provide commuter rail transportation from Carlisle to Harrisburg.

Until January 16, 1839, CVRR's trains did not cross the river. This town that sat across the river from Harrisburg was the "end of the line." Now called Camp Hill, then called White Hill, was the place where CVRR eventually located it's northern most rail yard and a brick roundhouse. Forty-eight years after this railroad began, the CVRR engine house was completed in White Hill. This would be one year before Camp Hill was incorporated.

Rewind to a time when trains were the cat's meow for travel. The CVRR dominated the south central Pennsylvania area. In the mid-1800s, Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) had its western mainline in service, but its trains were routed north to Lewistown then to Altoona and eventually to Pittsburgh.

Location of former White Hill CVRR Station

The original passenger station stood to the east of the 17th Street bridge on the south side of the tracks. Here you can see the newer 1906 CVRR White Hill station. Today, it no longer exists. In the photo to the right, you can see the 17th Street overpass in the background.  Based on the location of the power lines, I would think the 1906 station was located near the power line that is the most prominent in the photo.

For years the CVRR successfully blocked all competitors' requests to connect into their main line which connected to Harrisburg by 1839. However, The Philadelphia & Reading Railroad (P&R or the Reading) worked its way into the location later.  In 1891 the Reading built a bridge across the Susquehanna and then linked Harrisburg to Bowmansdale.  The P&R had dreams of connecting westward to Pittsburgh to battle with the B&O and CVRR. P&R built the Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh branch (PH&P) to Shippensburg, PA where it connected to the Western Maryland line.

An interchange point connects CVRR to the P&R line near the 1900 block of Hummel Avenue.

You can see the older triple "S" intersection here. Today it is a wye connection that allows traffic to connect to the northern track.

Looking west: P&R on left; CVRR on right. You can see the ADM Milling building (ADM Alliance Nutrition) in the one o'clock position of photo.

Looking west.

Looking East at Wye (Camp Hill station is on left past the signals in the distance).

Today, you can see P&R's station off of 18th Street.

Camp Hill P&R Station

This is the story behind the parallel tracks in Camp Hill, PA. 

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://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Hill,_Pennsylvania

http://www.oakwoodbaptistcamphill.org/camphill.htm

http://www.west2k.com/pastations/cumberland.shtml
http://www.railroadsignals.us/harris/harris.htm
http://davecathell.tripod.com/ch.html
http://broadway.pennsyrr.com/Rail/Prr/Maps/Centhist/

Tapeworm Railroad

When the Erie Canal  in New York opened in 1825 a panic stirred in Pennsylvania. This infrastructure posed a major threat to Philadelphia and other Pennsylvania cities in the central and eastern areas. State legislature was pushed to create the Canal Commission which broke ground a year later. The state of Pennsylvania used a railroad to connect Philadelphia with Harrisburg and then a canal along the Susquehanna from Harrisburg to Columbia, PA.


Meanwhile in 1826 a famous man by the name of Thaddeus Stevens, who was then practicing law in Gettysburg, got involved in the iron industry where he and some business partners formed Maria Furnace in Adams County.  


Stevens planned for the railroad to transport from "Columbia to York and Gettysburg and then through his ironworks at Maria Furnace to connect with the proposed Baltimore and Ohio line near Hagerstown. His approach to promoting such a line was that it would divert traffic from the B&O and funnel it toward Philadelphia, thus providing Philadelphia with a railroad to the west at no cost." [Watts, 1991]


There was much debate among politicians about granting rights for the B&O to build in Pennsylvania. Around this time there was much competition from other transportation rivalries. Private capitalists obtained from the legislature a charter for the York and Wrightsville Railroad, while Stevens obtained one from the same legislature for Wrightsville and Gettysburg Railroad. This was odd because Steven's new railway paralleled the already planned line for a portion of the distance and therefore was criticized in newspapers as the "Extra Railroad." Luckily, the charters of the two routes joined forces and merged to form the Wrightsville, York and Gettysburg Railroad Company.


So what is this Tapeworm Railroad and why am I mentioning Thaddeus Stevens? Well, it is this particular railway line that Stevens personally planned, and as you can imagine by the nickname it was not the most direct line as it had to navigate around the Green Ridge of South Mountain. Stevens had much opposition and they nicknamed it the Tapeworm Railroad. If you are patient you can see the lengthy serpentine of a line here. Note, this map was created on 1939. However, excavation for the railway began in 1936. 


Ok back to Thaddeus...many people have noted that Stevens was a shrewd politician who felt at ease using his position for personal advantage. When he was appointed President of the Canal Commission he used this influence to extend the rail line.


After the Wrightsville rail line merger, Stevens began to focus on a segment of the railway west of Gettysburg. This segment would allow construction from Gettysburg down to Williamsport, MD and the Potomac River. The C&O Canal was in full force at this time. But just as the Tapeworm Railroad began, it ended. The B&O moved its path further to the south that Stevens had planned, and by 1837 the Cumberland Valley Railroad reached Chambersburg. CVRR as a completed railroad won as the lead in this competition. Also during this time, the infamous Panic of 1837 occurred that brought much infrastructure development to a halt.


The nail in the coffin was during the 1838 elections as the Tapeworm Railroad was a main debate, but even more, Stevens lost his position on the Commission. Growing criticism of the railroad was based on expense and value. The State had spent over $766,000 on the project yet the majority felt it was better to cut the losses. The map I linked to earlier was part of a survey ordered in 1939. Thaddeus Stevens' pet railroad was put up for sale in 1842.


Some interesting features of the Tapeworm Railroad:

• Serpentine section around Green Ridge of South Mountain
• Switchbacks
• on the west slope at Hughs Forge along the East Branch Antiemtam Creek (known as Cold Spring Creek in 1839) 
• on east slope at the 1822 Maria Furnace along Toms Creek
• Three east slope tunnels through spurs of Jacks Mountain
• Single arch roadway bridge over Toms Creek (see photos below)
• McPherson Ridge railway cut used in 1863 for Battle of Gettysburg, First Day
• Seminary Ridge railway cut 

Relics of the Past

You can still find relics of the past. I will show some of what I have found.

The stone viaduct can be found in Adams County on Iron Springs Road.

Details from PA Historical Bridge Data: "The one span, 25'-long, stone arch bridge has voussoirs and spandrel walls with heavy vegetation growing in the earth fill. The bridge was built between 1836 and 1842 as part of the Tapeworm RR, a state sponsored project that was intended to connect Gettysburg with Thaddeus Stevens' iron furnaces in Franklin County. Cuts, embankments, and this stone bridge were completed before the state stopped appropriations and the project was abandoned in 1842. The line was derisively called the Tapeworm RR by its political opponents who saw the meandering line as one of the worst abuses of state-owned internal improvements. As a result of the Tapeworm RR and other canal and railroad projects, the state went heavily into debt. After 1842, state participation in internal improvements declined. The bridge is historically significant for its association with the Tapeworm RR."

Nearby is a tunnel. It now carries the CSXT RR and formerly the Western Maryland, and before that the Baltimore and Harrisburg Railway Western Extension which incorporated in 1888 and "provided a connection between the original Western Maryland mainline at Highfield and its alternate route, through Gettysburg and Hanover, to Baltimore." [Watts, 1991] You can see on the Tapeworm plan how the railway was to come up from Highfield (close to PA/MD border) to Gettysburg.

Eastern portal

Western portal

Heading north east towards Western portal

Driving through tunnel heading south west

Notice the wires go under the tunnel

Western portal

SOURCES:

"Railroads of Eastern Franklin County" Randy Watts. Copyright 1991

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapeworm_Railroad

Pennsylvania Historical Bridge Data, PENNDOT

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

Travels Around Big Spring Creek near Newville, PA

Today I ventured solo to Newville, PA. I wanted to see the tunnel under the old railroad and bridges that crossed the creek. It was a clear day, minimal clouds and temps were in the low-mid 50s.


What I found...

The tunnel made by Cumberland Valley Railroad that crosses Big Spring Creek on the north side has been replaced by a steel pipe.  Remnants of stone work can be seen, but this looks nothing like the photo I saw on Panoramio *bummer*

On the south side a large concrete tunnel, very common for railroads to use crossing streets is seen here crossing the creek.

Also around this area, is the western abutment to the CVRR which crossed Big Spring Road and the start of the CVRR RailTrail.

To the north of the old railroad is what I believe might be a mill or something...seems odd to have another mill so close to MacFarland's Mill.

Which brings me to MacFarland's Mill, well actually Green Ridge Road Bridge. 

There's an old abutment at a skew on the Big Spring Road side which makes me wonder if they decided a 90 degree angle was better for making right hand turns to travel to Newville.


This stringer crosses into a retirement community. The current bridge is where MacFarland's Mill formerly existed. It was constructed around 1756 and was a flour mill, paper mill, and finally as a knitting mill. The mill and dam were dismantled in 1950. After you pass the Green Ridge Road bridge you will see a structure on the left that I am guessing is a spring house. It is at this point that I realized I need to learn more about older structures. 

On a previous trip I photographed the historic Big Spring 

Creek bridge which is made of stone. So this trip, I did not photograph it (but I included a shot for your viewing pleasure).

My next stop was a private road which I decided to cross because no signs said not to trespass.












The bridge had steel stringers and a timber deck. The wood wobbled as I crossed it...




... and at a closer look I could see why!

Upstream from this bridge is an idyllic view. In this shot you can see the man-made rip rap. 

Further upstream, continuing to travel south west, I came across the intersection with Nealy Road. I found a modern concrete culvert that was built in 2006. To the northwest side of the bridge is where Irvin's Mill (also known as Keck's Mill) use to stand. 

My last destination was an area I noticed on Google Maps so I had to see what it was. I hit the jackpot. It was the site of McCracken Mill which is noted as the "most important mill along the course of Big Spring." (Kressler, 1965) 

USGS has one of their gauges here (notice the metal in the middle of the shot).

Across from the Mill and Log Cabin Road is the Barrel Factory. This building is mysterious...unknown date of creation and an second floor added later.





 
The last attraction on my trip was the Big Spring Road Bridge. This 64' long, two-span bridge is a steel stringer built in 1932 and rehabbed in 1950. This is downstream about 300 yards from the old mill.

CREDITS:
http://webspace.ship.edu/tmhurd/BSWARCPFinal.pdf
http://www.aquaticinstitute.com/The-Mills-of-Big-Spring-Creek-Newville-PA.html
http://pennsylvaniaflyfishing.blogspot.com/2006/11/rebirth-of-big-spring-creek.html
http://www.cumberlink.com/news/local/article_b1d4f914-c15e-11e0-b32d-001cc4c03286.html
http://bigspringwatershedbarrel.blogspot.com/