BRIDGESPOTTING

For more than 130 years, the Kinzua Viaduct in northwestern Pennsylvania has had an eventful history, and has undergone a few different iterations of being a tourist attraction. The bridge was originally constructed of iron in 1882 to carry freight trains, and was replaced by a steel structure in 1900. At the time of construction, it was the highest and longest railroad bridge in the world. The bridge was supported by 20 open, steel lattice towers, with those over the deepest part of the valley being more than 300 feet high.

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Although the height and length records were soon eclipsed by other bridges, the impressive scale of the structure attracted tourist interest even while it still functioned as a freight railroad bridge. Excursion trains originating in Buffalo and Pittsburgh brought tourists to the site to enjoy views of the Kinzua Valley. In 1959, the freight trains stopped rolling, but the tourist attraction continued. Due to its immense size and popularity, the bridge and surrounding property were acquired by the state and, in 1970, opened as Kinzua Bridge State Park. Starting in 1987, local excursion trains were run across the bridge specifically for tourists.

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The tourist trains continued until 2002, at which time they were stopped to allow repairs to the bridge. However, the repairs were never completed. A tornado struck a bulls-eye right through the middle of the bridge in July 2003, destroying 11 of the 20 steel towers, and leaving the two dangling ends facing each other across almost a half-mile of empty space.

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The destruction of the bridge by the tornado did not end its days as a tourist bridge. Quite the opposite. Instead, the large size of the bridge - with its enormous gaping hole in the very middle of what had been a large and apparently robust steel framework - and the mangled ruins of the collapsed towers lying in the valley became an attraction as a demonstration of the destructive power of mother nature.

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The state capitalized on this, in a big way. They made one of the ends safe and accessible for visitors, and then made infrastructure improvements to provide access to the remains. The largest of the intact ends, comprised of six towers, was turned into the Kinzua Sky Walk, now considered one of the more popular skywalk tourist attractions in the country. The Kinzua Sky Walk extends more than 600 feet out into the valley and is 225 feet high at the end. The end has been expanded into a comfortable viewing platform with a glass floor allowing you to look straight down more than 200 feet.

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A visitor center, opened in 2016, includes interactive exhibits on the history of the bridge, as well as displays comparing and contrasting man’s power to build structures, such as the viaduct, with nature’s power to destroy those structures within seconds. Dozens of hiking and biking trails have been developed, linking into trails in the surrounding Allegheny National Forest, and offering views of the skywalk towering above, as well as up-close views of the crumpled remnants of the 11 destroyed towers. Viewing areas, including some with binocular viewers, have been set up around the skywalk. Access to a viewing area within the towers of the remaining section has been developed, providing a unique view through the axis of the remaining towers.

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There is a detailed description of the state park in Chapter 8 of my book, Bridgespotting Part 2: A Guide to Even More Bridges that Connect People, Places, and Times.