page_title: Columbia–Wrightsville Bridge
section_title: Fourth bridge
hierarchical_section_title: Columbia–Wrightsville Bridge / Previous bridges / Fourth bridge
caption_attribution_description: The Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge carrying Pennsylvania Route 462 over the Susquehanna River, viewed from Wrightsville looking east toward Columbia.
context_page_description: The Columbia–Wrightsville Bridge, officially the Veterans Memorial Bridge, spans the Susquehanna River between Columbia and Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, and carries Pennsylvania Route 462 and BicyclePA Route S. Built originally as the Lancaster-York Intercounty Bridge, construction began in 1929, and the bridge opened September 30, 1930. On November 11, 1980, it was officially dedicated as Veterans Memorial Bridge, though it is still referenced locally as the Columbia–Wrightsville Bridge.
  In nominating the present Columbia–Wrightsville Bridge as an engineering landmark, the Pennsylvania section of the American Society of Civil Engineers noted that it is "a splendid example of the graceful multiple-span, reinforced-concrete arched form popular in early 20th Century highway bridges in the United States." The bridge is designated State Route 462 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is also a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.
context_section_description: Construction of the fourth Columbia-Wrightsville bridge, known as the Pennsylvania Railroad "Iron Bridge," started April 16, 1897, and was completed May 11, and was considered the fastest bridge-building job in the world at the time. A steel truss bridge made of 200-foot-long (61 m) prefabricated sections, it was designed to be resistant to fire, ice, water and wind, elements that had destroyed previous wooden structures. Like the previous bridges, tolls were collected to recover a portion of the half-million dollar investment. Built on the same 27 piers as the previous two bridges, it opened June 7, 1897. The iron and prefabricated steel structure had a railway to carry rail traffic for the York Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and twin carriageways that were shared with pedestrians. Tolls were 20 cents (equivalent to $6.15 in 2019) for vehicles (plus four cents per passenger; equivalent to $1.23 in 2019) and three cents for pedestrians (equivalent to $0.92 in 2019).
  The bridge remained uncompleted because a planned upper deck was never built. With the completion of the Lincoln Highway in 1925, vehicular traffic routinely jammed in the late 1920s when vehicles had to wait for trains to pass before crossing the bridge, since the bridge was shared with rail traffic. A fifth bridge (Veterans' Memorial Bridge) was planned and erected to accommodate vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The "Iron Bridge" carried passenger trains until 1954 and freight traffic until March 13, 1958, and was dismantled for scrap starting in 1963 and ending in November 1964. Its stone piers, dating to pre-Civil War times, still stand today, running parallel to the north side of the Veterans' Memorial Bridge.
caption: The Columbia–Wrightsville Bridge looking east from Wrightsville
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