The Iron Ring

Last night I took what is likely my last trip over the South Street bridge by bus. Although it is unclear when the repairs will begin, SEPTA has re-routed the 12 and the 40 due to weight restrictions. How frightening for those of us who have been riding those buses over that bridge for a while now……

No one would argue against the fact that it is time to repair our bridge. It is over 80 years-old! This great piece I read on another blog describes how the bridge was built in 1923 and the Schuylkill highway was opened sometime in the fifties. When the highway opened the bridge was given much more stress than it was built for, with on ramps and off ramps and the roughly fifty years have not been easy on it. Several times in the past few years large chunks of the bridge have fallen onto the highway. Pedestrian’s who cross are offered views of both the river and the highway through gaping holes.

So then why am I nostalgic? I have fond memories of the South Street Bridge. When I was a junior in high school we took a shuttle over it to my sister’s graduation from Penn. Due to traffic we got out halfway over the bridge and walked the rest of the way. It was 80 degrees and sunny and what a great view from the bridge! During my own Freshman year when we secured the Ivy football championship I joined the surge of students carrying the goal posts over the bridge to be dumped in the river. And Sophomore year we studied the rust on the bridge in my Intro to materials Science course.

With an 18 month timetable for completion of the new bridge, I can only hope that I never get to try it.

# posted by Sarah : 1:46 PM