Old Arch Bridge
Lewistown, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
The restored stone bridge opposite was built in 1813. It was part of the turnpike from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. The arch is without a keystone.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
This restored stone span was built in 1813 as part of the turnpike linking Harrisburg with Pittsburgh, a vital artery across the Pennsylvania mountains in the early republic. Its builders shaped a stone arch without a keystone—an unusual feat that has kept the bridge standing for more than two centuries. It carried travelers and freight in the age before canals and railroads bound the state together.
Why it matters
The bridge survives from the turnpike era, when improved roads first pushed commerce and settlers over the Alleghenies toward the growing West.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Travel History
Derry Township, PA · est. 1947
At this bend of the Juniata River, four generations of American movement stacked up in a single view: the old stone turnpike later paved over in concrete, the crumbling towpath and locks of a canal, the memory of river craft that once poled goods upstream, and the Pennsylvania Railroad cutting along the far bank. Each replaced the last as the nation's appetite for faster, cheaper transport reshaped the Appalachian valleys in the 1800s. The Juniata corridor was one of the great gateways west, and every mode of travel left its trace here.
Lewistown Station
Granville Township, PA · est. 1996
Built in 1848-49 as a freight warehouse, this is the oldest surviving structure known to have been raised by the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad — the company that would become one of the largest corporations on earth. Its opening was toasted at a banquet in September 1849 celebrating the rails' arrival in Lewistown, part of the great mid-century push to lace the state with iron. By 1868 the freight house had been remade into a passenger station, greeting travelers where goods once moved.
Mifflin County
Lewistown, PA · est. 1981
Established in 1789 from Cumberland and Northumberland counties, Mifflin County took its name from Thomas Mifflin, an early governor of the commonwealth. Its seat, Lewistown, was laid out the following year as settlers pushed into the Juniata Valley. In the decades that followed the county became important to Pennsylvania's canal era and its early iron industry, twin engines of the state's rise.
Three Locks
Granville Township, PA · est. 1947
Preserved here are three locks of the Juniata Division of the state-built Pennsylvania Canal, notable because three locks and their levels sat side by side—an unusual concentration on the line. Opened in the canal-building era of the 1830s, this waterway carried boats over the ridges between the Susquehanna and the west. The old stonework and the traced bed of the canal still mark the route.