A structural gem sits nestled in a valley amongst the mountains of Lycoming County Pennsylvania. Known today as the English Center Bridge and mostly traversed by locals and the wanderers who wish to visit nearby Little Pine Creek State Park, this architecturally significant creek crossing provides a visual aesthetic to the surrounding landscape that the surrounding community rallied to have preserved. The structure was listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1978 and recorded for the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) in 1997.
Category: PennDOT (Page 1 of 9)
As of September 2026, we have over 28,500 archaeological sites recorded in Pennsylvania. This reflects nearly 100 years of Pennsylvanian’s appreciating and recording information on the archaeological evidence of past populations. Of those sites, over 21,900 are pre-contact period archaeological sites – sites that date to the thousands of years that people lived in what is now Pennsylvania before Europeans arrived. Continue reading
This is part of a biannual blog series highlighting the agreement documents executed by PA SHPO in accordance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and its implementing regulations.
Odds are if you ask a historian of industry to tell you about The Industrial Revolution, they will respond with, “Which one? There have been four.” If they are from Pennsylvania, they may even add that Pennsylvania has many places associated with all four of them. So, what are these four industrial revolutions and what Pennsylvania places are associated with them, you ask?
Driving around the country, you may have seen something rising from a field that resembles a large bowling pin. Or, more likely, you have driven past these without a second glance. This was my experience with the East Texas VOR/DME. As part of my job as a cultural resource specialist for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), I determine if properties around projects are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. I have driven the State Route 78 corridor through the Lehigh Valley an uncountable number of times but never noticed this particular building. The property is adjacent to the highway where we were proposing work, so I decided to find out more about it.
On large stained and moss-covered stone masonry abutments over a single line of tracks in Tredyffrin Township, Chester County rested a dinosaur, a wrought iron relic of the past originally constructed to support the industry of a developing nation. Its appearance was worn and weathered from over 140 years of service.
Random holes and a mixed bag of fastener types and sizes littered the visible faces. The original railroad floor system was long gone and replaced with a timber vehicular deck. Its live load carrying capacity was a mere fraction of what it once was. However, under all of this rust was a diamond, a rare and complete example of a wrought iron pin-connected warren pony truss with built-up corrugated diagonal tension members, the last of its kind.
This is the story of relocation and reuse, adaptive reuse, of the last known remaining pin-connected wrought iron Warren pony truss in Pennsylvania – The Howellville Truss (2004RE01890).
Railroads played a vital role in Pennsylvania’s economic development, particularly during the Industrial Revolution and beyond. They facilitated the transportation of goods, raw materials, and people, fostering industrial growth, urbanization, and the expansion of markets. The construction of railroads like the Beech Creek Railroad and the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railroad, that primarily transported coal and other materials to homes and factories throughout Pennsylvania, played a significant role in the industrialization of the state.
At the end of July, PennDOT celebrated the relocation of a historic bowstring truss bridge in Schuylkill County onto Schuylkill River Greenways’ trail system with a ribbon cutting ceremony.
Bridges are a part of everyone’s lives, we walk across them, drive across them, and use them for cover in the rain. But do we ever really stop to appreciate the history of these bridges? My internship this summer focused a lot on historic bridges, especially stone arch bridge, and helped me to appreciate their value in the community.
The practice of historic preservation is like a family heirloom, passed down from one generation to the next so that when you get tasked with the role of heirloom keeper, it reminds us to not forget about the past and look to how it has shaped the present.
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