Over Memorial weekend, Colton and I were trying to find something to do. Mom suggested we check out Kinzua Bridge State Park. We were up for an adventure, and neither of us had ever been there, so we headed out.
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| Kinzua Bridge State Park |
The Bridge Background
The Kinzua Viaduct was constructed in 1882 and only took 94 days to build. It was the longest and highest viaduct in the world. Hence the appropriate nickname "The 8th Wonder of the World."
The bridge was made into a state park in 1963, but the park hadn't officially opened until 1970. In 1986 the state built the Knox, Kane, Kinzua railroad and sold trips to cross the viaduct at a whopping... 3 miles per hour. Yep, three.
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| Kinzua Bridge from Below |
On July 21, 2003, an F1 tornado tore through, causing 11 of the 20 total bridge towers to collapse. Some of the towers were literally lifted off of their foundations. Some were simply lain on the ground, and others yet were twisted, bent, and mangled beyond recognition.
After the tornado, the state decided not to rebuild due to the $45 million price tag to repair. Ouch. The alternate option was to use the site as a visitor attraction. In 2011, the remaining towers were repaired, and an $8 million skywalk, observation deck, and a visitor center were constructed instead. Quite a discount in comparison.
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| Kinzua Railroad |
My Impression of the Park
I had heard of the glass observation deck, but I thought it would be bigger like a walkway. Instead, it's more of a 10'x10' square of glass overlooking the damaged rail towers. We got to the end of the walk, and we noticed there were people down by the towers on the ground. So we backtracked to find our way down to the debris. The trek down was so steep. Surprisingly steep. At the bottom was a stream to cross with a little bridge.
Once we made it to the bottom, it was pretty neat just to actually see how tall the towers are. Here's Colton for a size comparison.
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| Massive Kinzua Bridge Towers |
With how twisted and bent some of the metal is, it's just crazy to think about how strong the wind must have been to do that much damage.
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| Huge Bridge Debris |
We climbed and explored for a little bit. Then we sat on one of the concrete foundations. On such a beautiful day, it was only a matter of time until we started to feel the sunburn kick in, so we headed back up. Straight up. The whole way. We then went into the visitor center. The center had lots of history about the bridge, artifacts, and videos about the tornado.
All in all, it was a great day. We got to see a big piece of Pennsylvania history, spend some time together, learn a few things, and most importantly, get some great shots!
