0.5 mi. E of Nicholson at Tunkhannock Creek, Nicholson, Pennsylvania. County/parish: Wyoming.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places April 11, 1977. NRIS 77001203.
1 contributing structure.Also known as:
Tunkhannock Creek Viaduct (also known as the Nicholson Bridge and the Tunkhannock Viaduct) is a concrete deck arch bridge on the Nicholson Cutoff rail line segment of the Norfolk Southern Railway Sunbury Line that spans Tunkhannock Creek in Nicholson, Pennsylvania. Measuring 2,375 feet (724 m) long and towering 240 feet (73.15 m) when measured from the creek bed (300 feet (91.44 m) from bedrock), it was the largest concrete structure in the world when completed in 1915 and still merited "the title of largest concrete bridge in America, if not the world" 50 years later.
Built by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W), the bridge is owned today by Norfolk Southern Railway and is used daily for regular through freight service.
The DL&W built the viaduct as part of its 39.6-mile (63.7 km) Nicholson Cutoff, which replaced a winding and hilly section of the route between Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Binghamton, New York, saving 3.6 miles (5.8 km), 21 minutes of passenger train time, and one hour of freight train time. The bridge was designed by the DL&W's Abraham Burton Cohen; other key DL&W staff were G. J. Ray, chief engineer; F. L. Wheaton, engineer of construction; and C. W. Simpson, resident engineer in charge of the construction. The contractor was Flickwir & Bush, including general manager F. M. Talbot and superintendent W. C. Ritner.
In 1975, the American Society of Civil Engineers or ASCE designated the bridge as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. ASCE noted that at the time of its construction from 1912 to 1915, it was the largest reinforced concrete railroad bridge ever built.
The bridge was also listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 3, 1977. In 1990, the National Railway Historical Society placed a historical plaque on the structure noting its size as the world's largest concrete bridge, completing the Summit cut-off project for the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad.
(read more...)National Park Service documentation: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71996784