Hares Hill Road Bridge

Infobox_Bridge
bridge_name= Silver Bridge - Hares Hill Road Bridge over French Creek


caption= Looking upstream
official_name= S.R. 1045 Hares Hill Bridge
also_know_as= Silver Bridge
carries= single lane of PA State Route S.R.1045 in Chester County
crosses= French Creek
locale= Kimberton, Pennsylvania and Phoenixville, Pennsylvania
maint= PennDOT
id= 15104500201201
design= open grate steel deck wrought iron through lattice girder
length= 31.5 m (103'-4")
width= 4.26 m (14 ft)
traffic= approx 4,000
open= 1869
closed=
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coordinates= coord|40.140867|N|75.568333|WThe Hares Hill Road Bridge is a single span wrought iron tied arch structure with lattice infilling. It was built in 1869 in Chester County, Pennsylvania by Moseley Iron Bridge and Roof Company and is the only known surviving example of this kind. The bridge crosses French Creek, a Scenic River, and connects the Village of Kimberton, Pennsylvania and Spring City, PA. The structure has a current load posting of 7 tons.

tructure Information

The Hares Hill Road Bridge is a single span, 103’- 4” long, wrought iron tied arch structure with lattice infilling. It was built in 1869 in Chester County, Pennsylvania by Moseley Iron Bridge and Roof Company. Abraham Taney, Jr., a Mason Contractor and fabricator, erected the bridge in 1869. Stone masonry abutments support the superstructure and the open grid deck. Over the years, the bridge has had extensive rehabilitations.

The structure is listed in the National Register and has a high degree of historical and technological significance: it is the only known surviving example of Thomas William Moseley’s Wrought Iron Lattice Girder Bridge”. The bridge has already been recorded for the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER) with detailed drawings, photographs and a substantial historical narrative. The structure carries one lane of traffic on S.R. 1045 (Hares Hill Road) across French Creek. Residences are located along the north bank of French Creek and a wooded area runs along the south bank.

The abutments are founded on rock and consist of random rubble mortared sandstone. They are convert|20|ft|m long, convert|7|ft|m wide at the base, have a batter of ½” to the foot, and are about convert|12|ft|m high above low water. Concrete pedestals have replaced the original stone bearing seats. Wing walls extend approximately convert|60|ft|m with a slight flare on the south side. The north wings are about convert|20|ft|m long.

The original superstructure consisted of the 2 wrought-iron arched girders with lattice webbing and a timber floor system. The arch girders are made up of a pair of “Z-bars” riveted to a central plate diaphragm. Diagonal latticing fills the web between the upper and lower portions of the plate. Each arch has 7 vertical members which support the floor system along with the lattice and bottom tie plate. Bowstring-type tie rods extend diagonally from the bottom of the center vertical on both sides of each arch.

The HABS/HAER narrative cites 3 major rehabilitations.

While the bridge is currently painted yellow, it was painted silver for many years and local residents still refer to it as the “Silver Bridge.”

ee also

*Kimberton, Pennsylvania
*East Pikeland Township, Pennsylvania
*Zenas King
*Moseley Wrought Iron Arch Bridge

References

*cite web|url=http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?ID=s0005836|title=Hares Hill Bridge|work=Structurae [en] : Hare's Hill Road Bridge (1869)
*cite web|url=http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.pa2261
title=Hares Hill Road Bridge, Spanning French Creek, Kimberton, Chester County, PA|work=Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey
*cite web|url=http://www.kingbridgeco.com/siapaper.html
title=DISCOVERING ZENAS KING|work=Paper delivered to the Society of Industrial Archeology by Allan King Sloan © 1999 June 5, 1999 - Savannah, Georgia

External links

*
* [http://nationalbridges.com/nbi_record.php?StateCode=42&struct=151045002012010 NBI Rating]
* [http://www.kimbertoninn.com/history.asp History of Kimberton Inn]
* [http://jim-frizzell.com/crossroads_of_kimberton.htm Crossroads of Kimberton]
* [http://www.kingbridgeco.com/siapaper.html Discovering Zenas King]
* [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.pa2261 Historic American Engineering Record (Library of Congress)]