If you’re looking for information about the Tunkhannock Viaduct in Wyoming County, you’re in the right place!
The Tunkhannock Viaduct is the largest concrete railroad bridge in the world, towering 240 feet above Tunkhannock Creek and the borough of Nicholson below.
A magnet for tourists since the day it was completed in 1915, what follows is a brief history of this massive bridge, as well as information on visiting the bridge today.
History of the Tunkhannock Viaduct
500 men worked 24 hours a day from May 1912 to November 1915 to build the Tunkhanock Viaduct.
The bridge was built by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W) as part of its Nicholson Cut-off project.
This project was designed to shorten the DL&W main rail line from Scranton, Pennsylvania to Binghamton, New York and remove some steeper grades along the route, thereby improving speed and efficiency for the railroad.
The Tunkhannock Viaduct was constructed using over 1140 tons of steel and 167,000 cubic yards of concrete.
The viaduct is composed of 12 arches, with one arch at each end being totally buried by backfilled rocks and soil.
All of the piers supporting the bridge were sunk to bedrock roughly 100 feet below the surface, so that nearly half of the bulk of the bridge is underground.
The bridge derives its name from Tunkhannock Creek, the body of water it spans.
The Tunkhannock Viaduct is also known as the Nicholson Bridge because of the small Pennsylvania borough where it is located.
The Tunkhannock Viaduct is owned today by Norfolk Southern Railway, and is still used daily for regular freight service.
Visiting the Tunkhannock Viaduct
The “official” place to view the bridge from is the Tunkhannock Viaduct Park along Route 11 in Nicholson.
The park is located along the southbound land of Route 11 just outside of Nicholson.
You can “unofficially” view the bridge from just about anywhere around Nicholson, including this vantage point along Farnham Road, just east of Nicholson.
This hilltop cemetery west of town is another vantage point where the massive scale of the bridge becomes apparent.
Since 1990, Nicolson has celebrated its historic landmark on the second Sunday of September with “Nicholson Bridge Day”, complete with live music, an arts and crafts fair, and plenty of food vendors.
An architectural marvel and testament to human ingenuity – take time to check out the Tunkhannock Viaduct in Wyoming County if you find yourself passing through northeastern PA!
Related Attractions
Kinzua Bridge State Park is home to what was once the longest and tallest railway bridge in the entire world – The Kinzua Viaduct.
Originally owned and operated by the New York, Lake Erie, and Western Coal Company, the Kinzua Viaduct stood 301 feet tall and was 2,053 feet long when initially completed in 1882.
Partially destroyed by a tornado in 2003, the remaining, still-standing 600 feet of bridge was repurposed and reopened as “The Kinzua Skywalk” at Kinzua Bridge State Park in 2011.
The Salisbury Viaduct is just one of the many engineering marvels along the 150 mile-long Great Allegheny Passage, the longest multi-use rail trail in Pennsylvania.
Standing 101 feet tall, the Salisbury Viaduct opened to rail traffic in 1912.
Abandoned as a rail through-route in 1975, the Salisbury Viaduct is now one of the highlights along the Great Allegheny Passage rail trail.
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