Stone Bridge, Railway bridge in Johnstown, United States
Stone Bridge is a railway bridge in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, spanning the Conemaugh River on seven stone arches. It carries four active railway tracks used by Norfolk Southern Railway for regular freight operations.
The bridge was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1887 and 1888, just a year before the catastrophic Johnstown Flood of 1889 swept through the valley. Debris carried by the floodwaters piled up against the arches and caught fire, yet the structure held.
The bridge sits at the heart of Johnstown and is part of the everyday backdrop for people who live nearby. Its stone arches have become so familiar that locals rarely stop to look, yet visitors often pause at the riverbank to take in the scale of the structure.
The bridge is in active railway use, so the tracks themselves are off limits to visitors. The best views of the stone arches are from the riverbank nearby, where you can see the full span without any obstruction.
Stone Bridge is one of the few remaining skewed stone arch bridges in the country, meaning its arches cross the river at an angle rather than straight across. This type of construction was already uncommon for stone bridges of this size even when it was built.
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