On the morning of October 4, 1777, during the Battle of Germantown, in the Revolutionary war, the Pennsylvania Militia under General John Armstrong, occupied the high ground along the Wissahickon Creek near Rittenhousetown. The militia was attacked by a British regiment under Lieutenant General Knuyphausen, which occupied the opposite bank of the Wissahickon, near School House Lane. It was hard for the Redcoats to get from their side of the Wissahickon to the American side because the banks are high and steep. We bet the British wished there was a bridge that they could have marched across!
The Henry Avenue Bridge finally was constructed in 1931. It is made of steel and faced with stone. This bridge has a total length of 1080 feet, and the main arch spans 291 feet over the Wissahickon Creek. The highway is 60 feet wide. In January 1931, during construction, the bridge began to sag, raising fears that the structure would collapse. This caused Lincoln Drive to be closed for over one month, while engineers fixed the problem.
We made a model of the Henry Avenue Bridge with a steel skeleton and stone facing just like the real thing!
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