While auto routing the back roads in the fall of 2004 I stumbled
into a rather impressive bridge. It reminded me of one like it I
had seen in California, which is where the name for this cache
comes from
This impressive structure is listed on the National Register of
Historic Places and is the oddest extant
suspension bridge in North America. This eyebar hybrid
truss-suspension bridge is the survivor of two such English Center
bridges constructed in 1891 by Dean and Westbrook. Once a logging
and tanning town English Center is located in north central
Pennsylvania’s Little Pine Creek valley. Spring floods on the creek
transported logs downstream 30 miles to Williamsport. A
particularly violent flood, however, destroyed English Center’s
Upper and Lower bridges in June 1889. Lycoming County commissioners
selected Dean & Westbrook, New York engineers and contractors,
to design and build new spans. Records of the commissioners’
quibbling over the number and cost of bridges, and the contractor’s
repeated requests for payment, indicate that budget was a
controlling factor in the design. High material costs at that time
pushed design toward material efficiency, even at the expense of
complex fabrication. Rough terrain between English Center and the
railroad in neighboring Pine Creek valley imposed another
constraint, in the way of material transportation costs. This
design was chosen because replacement bridges without piers in the
creek bed would more likely survive future floods.
This is a micro cache. Please bring your own pen for the logbook
within.
We replaced the cache on 3-15-06. It had in fact gone
missing!
On 9/18/07 we replaced the cache and log book and moved it a
short distance to a more protected place.
We once again replaced the cache on 6/28/08
ENJOY