Kingsley bridge celebration set for Sept. 5

BY PAT FARNELLI
Wyoming County Press Examiner Correspondent

Local history buffs will celebrate the 100th birthday of the Martins Creek Viaduct also known as the Kingsley Bridge, on Sept. 5 with a chicken barbecue, live music, a “Cloud Dance,” and other outdoor entertainment.

To kick off the centennial activities, this past Saturday, the Brooklyn Historical Society held a special meeting at the Richard and Patty Zick home, with updates on the plans for the centennial celebration and a checklist of tasks still to be accomplished.

Park Ranger and historian Patrick McKnight from Steamtown National Historic Site was the guest speaker.

Zick said he first met McKnight while he was investigating the prospect of renovating the old train station.

“We talked about the cutoff, and bridges, and he told me he had found much information related to the viaducts in Susquehanna County,” Zick said.

Research is just beginning,” McKnight said. “There are thousands of documents and photos, dozens of architectural drawings are being collected.”

McKnight began his presentation with the historical context for the building of the viaducts for the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in the early 1900s.

He said that when the bridges were under construction, the Great War (or what is known today as World War I) was underway.

“They sent the model for the Tunkhannock Creek Viaduct to Germany, and it was lost there,” he said. During that time, the Panama Canal was also being constructed, and McKnight pointed out the same massive earth moving machinery was used at both the Panama Canal sites to dig the canal and fill in the low areas, as that in photographs from the construction of the viaducts in northeast Pennsylvania.

The same steel reinforced concrete construction techniques were used to create the locks on the canal, he said.

“The Marion Steamshovel Construction Company built machinery you can see here was used at both sites,” he said. “If I start to look at the Clarks Summit to Hallstead Cutoff, and then look at the Panama Canal construction photos, I can easily get confused. The same things are going on in these pictures.”

He showed a viaduct in New Jersey and others constructed before the Kingsley and Nicholson bridges. As the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad built the bridges, they each became larger than the previous ones, culminating with the Tunkhannock Creek viaduct.

McKnight also discussed the advantages of reinforced concrete construction versus a steel trestle.

“Steel is cheaper and goes up faster, and is more cost efficient, but reinforced concrete lasts longer. Steel bridges last about 50 years, while reinforced concrete bridges last more than 100,” he said. “Reinforced concrete bridges are less likely to be damaged by accidents, acts of nature, or sabotage,” he said. “I would rather be on a concrete viaduct than a steel trestle.”

“Within two to three years of the completion of the Clarks Summit to Hallstead Cutoff, the DL&W made back all the money that they had invested in the construction,” McKnight said.

When he showed slides of documents mentioning G.J. Ray, who oversaw local construction, Mary Gere of South Montrose said that her parents knew Mr. Ray and his wife well, and that she still has in her possession bridal and wedding shower gifts her parents received from the couple.

“They were from Orange, N.J. My mother knew Mrs. Ray. They attended the big Baptist Church in Orange, N.J., and my mother was the minister’s clerical assistant. When she was married in the 1920s, Mrs. Ray gave her bridal shower, and I have two cookbooks that she gave her inscribed with her name and good wishes.”

The railroad contracted out the cutoff’s viaduct and railroad construction, and the filling of the gaps. Contractors bid on the sections. For example, the first section was completed by the Robert Grace Company, sections two and three by Reiter, Curtis & Hill, section four by D.W. Flickwir (who built the Nicholson Tunnel). Section five, which included the Tunkhannock Creek Viaduct, was completed by Flickwir & Bush Inc. The sixth section was built by Waltz and Rose. The eighth section was contracted by the F.M. Talbot Company, which built the Martins Creek Viaduct. The tenth section was completed by Alfred Ganagen.
McKnight showed slide photos of the two viaducts, month by month, from March 1913 until January of 2015.

The Hallstead Cut, as it was known by the DL&W, would shorten the rail distance between New York City and Buffalo by just 3.6 miles, and the maximum grade from 1.22 percent to .68 percent.

It cost $1 million, which was a huge sum even by today’s standards, but it would pay off over the next 100 years, as rail traffic fueled the nation’s peace time economic development as well as war-time efforts.

The Martins Creek Viaduct, or Kingsley Bridge, is 1,600 feet long and 150 feet above the bed of the creek, according to the Centennial Celebration pamphlet.

Though it is a bit smaller than the now more famous Nicholson Bridge, “she was finished first and for a short time was the largest concrete viaduct in the world,” the pamphlet proudly states.

The F.M. Talbot Company and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western engineers hosted a celebration on Sept. 3, 1914, on the nearly completed rail bed, with a dance called the “Cloud Dance.”

The “aerial dance event” was held atop the viaduct on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 3, at 8 p.m., on the first pier of the giant bridge, under electric lights.

Approximately 200 people from throughout the entire railroad system arrived at the Kingsley station to get to the dance. A huge construction derrick with a carriage basket was used to raise and lower dancers to the dance floor, made by laying wood planks and then a carpet-like surface across the pier. Music was provided by the Oppenheim Orchestra of New York City.

Following the dance, trains left Kingsley station at 12:30 a.m. and 1:30 a.m.

Patronesses of the unique affair included Mrs. W.L. Lozier of Kingsley and Mrs. M.B. Knowles of Nicholson.

The organizers of the centennial celebration hope to find descendants of these hostesses to help celebrate this bridge on Sept. 5. Festivities will be held from noon to 7 p.m.
including a chicken barbecue, hay rides, games, music, and a concert by the Lenoxville Band.

On Sept. 12-13, steam train excursions will be contracted through the Steamtown National Historic Site to Nicholson and over both viaducts en route to Binghamton, N.Y., and back.

Annie and David Palmer have purchased tickets to ride the train from Scranton to Nicholson, and will carry the historical society’s first place trophy from the Fourth of July Parade in Montrose on the excursion.

A special meeting was held by the Brooklyn Historical Society Saturday, and the traditional ringing of the bell was replaced by the shaking of some antique sleighbells belonging to the Zick family.

Rev. Ralph Christianson of the Universalist Church, who serves as President of the Historical Society, said, “It has been almost a year since I persuaded Richard Zick and David Palmer to plan an anniversary celebration.”

On Saturday, Zick welcomed the visitors, and said, “My wife and I want to share our property with you today. We have been planning this for some time.”

Dave Palmer said that the annual meeting report is available for view, and reported on a baseball game for the Railriders, attended as a fundraiser, which so far has raised $290 for the Brooklyn Historical Society.

Paul Gere, chairman of the nominating committee, read a list of nominees. The next meeting will be held on Oct. 18.