East Bloomsburg Bridge
The East Bloomsburg Bridge was a historic road bridge in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, that crossed the Susquehanna River to connect Bloomsburg with Catawissa Township. It carried what is now Pennsylvania Route 487 (the Ferry Road section) and stretched about 1,150 feet long.
The bridge opened in 1894 and consisted of six pin-connected through-truss spans, each about 190 feet long. The trusses were Pennsylvania-style (Petit) trusses with a Pratt-based design. The deck was made of wood and later updated, and the floor used 2.5-inch oak planks. The original load limit was 13 tons, later reduced to 10 tons. It had two lanes, each about 8¼ feet wide, and a clearance of roughly 16 to 16.9 feet.
The bridge endured a major flood in 1904 that damaged parts of it. It was redecked in 1914 with laminated wood and a bituminous surface, and again in 1924 with diagonally laid white oak planks. In 1954 it was redecked with steel, and guard rails were added. By the 1980s the bridge was deteriorating and its weight limit dropped below 10 tons. Ownership passed to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in 1985.
Although the bridge was considered eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, demolition plans were made in 1984, and it was removed in 1987. A new bridge, the Fort McClure Veterans Memorial Bridge, was built at the same site and opened in 1987 (named in 1988).
In 2005, a USGS gauging station was installed near the site to measure river flow. The East Bloomsburg Bridge helped Bloomsburg grow by improving access to the Coal Region and to Route 11, aiding the town’s shift from iron mining to textile mills. By 1987 it carried about 6,000 cars a day and was one of the last bridges in Pennsylvania to use Pennsylvania-style trusses.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 20:00 (CET).