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A local landmark, the Tunkhannock Viaduct or Nicholson Bridge has been a center of folklore and legend since its completion. The legend of a person being buried in the Nicholson Bridge has been etched in the mind of locals for years. Another legend claimed that gold was buried inside the bridge during construction in 1912.To this day many people enjoy the breath-taking views of the Famed Nicholson Bridge.Tunkhannock Viaduct (also known as the Nicholson Bridge) is a concrete deck arch bridge that spans the Tunkhannock Creek in Nicholson, Wyoming County, Pennsylvania in the United States. It was the largest concrete bridge in America when it opened, and remained so even 50 years later.The bridge contains about 169,000 cubic yards (129,000 m3) of concrete and 1,240 short tons (1,120 t) of steel.[3] It is 2,375 feet (724 m) long and 240 feet (73 m) tall when measured from the creek bed (300 feet (91 m) tall from the bedrock). The bridge was built as part of the Clark's Summit-Hallstead Cutoff, which was part of a project of the Lackawanna Railroad to revamp a winding and hilly system. This rerouting was built between Scranton, Pennsylvania and Binghamton, New York. All thirteen piers were excavated to bedrock, which was up to 138 feet (42 m) below ground level. Almost half of the bulk of the bridge is underground.The bridge was built by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and was designed by Abraham Burton Cohen.[4]. Construction on the bridge began in May 1912, and dedication took place on November 6, 1915. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 11, 1977.The first ground for the Bridge was broken in May of 1912, and the first concrete was poured in January of 1913. By late 1915, the whole project, including the Tunkhannock and Martens Creek Viaducts, was completed and the official opening came on November 6 of that year. From May 1912 to November 1915 comes to just three and a half years. It is estimated that even with today's equipment and methods of construction this would be a short period for the building of such a structure.
The piers were sunk to bedrock which in one case was one hundred and thirty-eight feet below ground level. Giant wooden towers were built at each end and another near the center to support an aerial tramway for moving materials to position on the project. The towers at the ends were one hundred and sixty-nine feet high while that in the center soared three hundred feet into the air. Beneath this busy project on high was a beehive of activity, with four thousand feet of narrow gauge -track over which a rolling stock of fourteen flatcars and four "Dinky" engines hauled re-inforcing steel rods and buckets of cement from the mixer, to the foot of the central tower where it was hoisted high above to the tramway and laterally into the desired position, As the piers reached the first level, giant arches of steel were placed to support the wooden forms for the concrete, and remained until the concrete in the arch had solidified. The steel was then dismantled and moved to another arch where the process was repeated.
When the wood forms were in place, networks of reinforcing steel were installed, with some of these rods measuring up to two inches in diameter. When all was ready, the buckets of concrete were hoisted to the top, moved into position on the tramway, and the concrete was dumped through the trapdoor bottoms of the buckets.
The construction was delayed for a short time when the pier near the creek was held up by a bed of quicksand at the excavation. Steel caissons and "sandhogs" imported for the special job soon overcame this difficulty, and the work progressed. This pier now rests on bedrock ninety-two feet below the surface.
The average workforce consisted of some two hundred and ten skilled workmen such as riggers and carpenters and three hundred laborers. Of this small army of men only three were lost, and they by falls. The story of a man being buried in the concrete is quite ridiculous, for the men worked almost at the level of the concrete and the heavy concentration of reinforcing steel rods would have prevented anyone from falling in.
During the planning of the cut-off, there was some discussion of crossing the valley with a fill over two large culverts, but the planner saw the Tunkhannock in flood and decided a bridge more practical.
portions of text from "The Bridge was Built" - Mulligan Printing Corp. Reprint Jan. 2006
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