Henszey's Wrought Iron Arch Bridge
East Pennsboro Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Early example of a wrought iron bowstring arch truss bridge. Patented in 1869 by Joseph G. Henszey and built that year by the Continental Bridge Co. of Philadelphia, this bridge was part of a proliferation of bridges following the Civil War. In Lehigh County it crossed Trout Creek in Slatington and then was moved in 1900 to span the Ontelaunee Creek at Wanamaker. In 2002, the bridge was moved to Summerdale to carry pedestrian traffic.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Patented in 1869 by Joseph G. Henszey and built the same year by Philadelphia's Continental Bridge Co., this wrought iron bowstring arch truss is an early survivor of the bridge-building boom that followed the Civil War. It first carried traffic over Trout Creek in Slatington, was relocated in 1900 to span Ontelaunee Creek, and in 2002 moved again to Summerdale to carry pedestrians. Few of its kind remain.
Why it matters
The little arch is a rare relic of the postwar engineering surge that stitched the nation together with iron, when patented truss designs raced to replace timber crossings.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
The years after the Civil War set off one of the great building booms in American history. A reunited and industrializing nation needed to move people and goods as never before, and that meant bridges — thousands of them — thrown across the creeks and rivers that had long slowed overland travel.
This was the Reconstruction and Gilded Age, a time when iron was transforming construction. Timber bridges, which rotted and burned, were giving way to metal spans that promised strength and permanence. Inventors raced to patent new truss designs, and young bridge companies sprang up to manufacture and erect them across the expanding country.
Pennsylvania, with Philadelphia as one of the era's great industrial hubs, was at the center of this surge. The state's creeks and valleys became a proving ground for the new engineering, and small iron spans like this one were the everyday infrastructure of a nation in a hurry to connect itself.
People & events
This bridge is an early example of a wrought iron bowstring arch truss — a design in which a curved top arch is tied to a straight lower chord, so that the whole span works together to carry a load. It was patented in 1869 by Joseph G. Henszey and built that same year by the Continental Bridge Company of Philadelphia.
From the start it led a working life that reads like a travelogue. It first carried traffic in Lehigh County, crossing Trout Creek in Slatington. In 1900 it was taken down and moved to span the Ontelaunee Creek at Wanamaker — a reminder that a well-made iron bridge was a valuable, reusable asset, not a permanent fixture of one spot.
Its travels did not end there. In 2002 the bridge was relocated once more, this time to Summerdale, where it was put to work carrying pedestrians rather than the wagons and traffic of its first century. Few bridges get a third act; this one earned one by surviving.
Its place in the American story
In the decades after the Civil War, patented truss designs competed to replace the nation's aging timber crossings, and the bowstring arch was among the forms that briefly flourished. Most such early iron bridges were eventually scrapped, replaced by heavier spans as vehicles grew larger and loads grew heavier.
That makes a surviving example like this one genuinely rare. It is a physical relic of the postwar engineering push that stitched the country together with iron — an era when a Philadelphia bridge company could patent a design and send it out to cross creeks across the region. To stand before it is to see, in the flesh, a technology that most people now know only from photographs.
Its repeated relocations tell a second American story: one of thrift and reuse. A sound iron span was too valuable to waste, so communities disassembled and moved it to wherever the next crossing was needed. The bridge's long, migratory career is itself a lesson in how the country built — and rebuilt — its infrastructure.
If you visit
Today the bridge rests in Summerdale, in East Pennsboro Township, carrying people on foot. That second life is a gift to visitors: you can walk across the very span that once bore the traffic of a young industrial nation.
As you cross, look at the curved upper arch tied to the straight lower chord — the bowstring shape that gives the design its name — and at the wrought iron members joined together. This is nineteenth-century engineering you can put your hand on, built the same year it was patented.
It makes a fine, unhurried stop on a drive through Cumberland County. Spend a few minutes imagining the creeks it has crossed and the moves it has survived since 1869. For anyone interested in how America was built, this small iron arch offers a surprisingly direct connection to the hands and ideas of the Gilded Age.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Joseph G. Henszey
Themes & tags
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