There is an untold story about the United States that begins in the 1600s. Prior to English entrepreneur and Pennsylvania founder William Penn’s arrival to the New World, this continent was inhabited by various Indigenous Indian tribes. Once the Swedes and the Dutch began settling in the area they bartered for land (and fought over it). After William Penn’s arrival the land was sectioned out to various hamlets. The Indigenous tribes started to die off because of fighting or disease and most of them left the river areas. Mills started to appear in the late 1600s and early 1700s which created a boom in food production. This led to more people settling in the Tri-State area. Then in the 1800s, the result was that Philadelphia had the world’s largest and most diverse growth spurt of industrial sectors which of course played a huge role in the Revolutionary War.
In the 1600s, the King's Highway was built to go from Boston, Massachusetts to Charleston, South Carolina. This highway is now the oldest road in continuous use in the nation. In Philadelphia, William Penn had the King’s Highway Bridge built by residents via royal edict. This bridge built in 1697 is the oldest roadway bridge in continuous use in the nation. When it comes to Philadelphia however, Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell are still the popular tourist attractions.
“People only know about the history of Center City, Philadelphia.” said Fred Moore of the Northeast Philadelphia History Network. “Northeast Philadelphia has been all but forgotten.”
Frankford Avenue Bridge
The Frankford Avenue Bridge, also known as the Pennypack Creek Bridge, the Pennypack Bridge, the Holmesburg Bridge, and the King's Highway Bridge, erected in 1697 in the Holmesburg section of Northeast Philadelphia, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, is the oldest surviving roadway bridge in the United States. The three-span, 73-foot-long (22 m) twin stone arch bridge carries Frankford Avenue (U.S. Route 13), just north of Solly Avenue, over Pennypack Creek in Pennypack Park.
The construction of the bridge, built at the request of William Penn to connect his mansion with the new city of Philadelphia, was an important link on the King's Highway that linked Philadelphia with cities to the north (Trenton, New York, and Boston).
On March 10, 1683, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed a law requiring the building of bridges across all of the rivers and creeks along all of the King's Highway in Pennsylvania, from the Falls of the Delaware (at Trenton, N.J.) to the southernmost ports of Sussex County (now part of the state of Delaware). The bridges, which were to be completed within 18 months, were to be ten feet wide and include railings along each side. The areas on either side of the of the bridges were to be cleared to facilitate horse and cart traffic. Each bridge was to be built by male inhabitants of the surrounding area; those who failed to appear were to be fined 20 shillings.
Anyone who crossed over the bridge crossed traveled to Philadelphia by horseback or coach from the northern colonies, including delegates to the First or Second Continental Congresses, such as John Adams, from Massachusetts. In 1789, George Washington crossed the bridge on his way to his first presidential inauguration in New York.
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This bridge just went through some tender loving care. Looks beautiful. Cross this bridge about once a week.
It's great that you write about forgotten things. Who knew that bridges like this were built so well back then that they still survive today. It's ashamed that bridges back then were simple and beautiful and now they're complicated and ugly and need lots of upkeep. Good read.