page_title: Gray's Ferry Bridge
section_title: Floating bridges
hierarchical_section_title: Gray's Ferry Bridge / Floating bridges
caption_attribution_description: English: An eastward view of the floating bridge at Gray's Ferry south of Philadelphia drawn in 1816 by Joshua Rowley Watson (1772-1818). Original at the New York Historical Society. Reprinted from "Lower Bridge on Schuylkill at Gray's Ferry," in "Captain Watson’s Travels in America: the sketchbooks and diary of Joshua Rowley Watson, 1772-1818" by Kathleen A. Foster, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997). Posted at http://www.archives.upenn.edu/histy/features/wphila/exhbts/grubel/21early.html
context_page_description: Gray's Ferry Bridge has been the formal or informal name of several floating bridges and four permanent ones that have carried highway and rail traffic over the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. The bridge today is a four-lane divided highway bridge, built in 1976, that carries Grays Ferry Avenue from the Grays Ferry neighborhood on the east bank, over the river and the Northeast Corridor railroad tracks, to the Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood of Kingsessing.
  In 1902, rail traffic was taken over by the adjacent Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Bridge No. 1, which in 2019 and 2020 is being rebuilt for use by cyclists and pedestrians traveling the Schuylkill River Trail.
context_section_description: The first bridge across the Schuylkill River was a pontoon bridge built in 1777 by British troops occupying the city. Its construction was anticipated on the American side by General John Armstrong, Sr. of the Pennsylvania militia, who wrote on October 8, "I think they will also throw a bridge of some sort over Grey's Ferry, not only to maintain a communication with but secure a retreat to their shipping."
  Armstrong was right. The bridge's preparation and construction were described by Captain John Montresor, the engineer on the staff of General William Howe:
  October 17, 1777 — This day principally employed in my department in transporting the materials for the Bridge of Schuylkill at Gray's Ferry together with its boats.
  18th — The utmost preparation making to forward the Bridge at Gray's Ferry across Schuylkill.
  20th — At half past 10 this morning the engineers finished the floating Bridge across Schuylkill of 400 feet.
  But this bridge remained in place only two days, as British commanders decided that the extra fording capacity was better used farther north. Montresor wrote, "22nd — At 3 o' clock p.m., the works for the tete du pont at Gray's Ferry ordered to be stopt and the Detacht. to return and the bridge to be taken up and carried to Middle Ferry." (He and his men completed this bridge on October 24, only to see it wash away four days later by "the N.E. Stormy High tide and rapid stream and Ebb tide together." A replacement floating-log bridge at Middle Ferry was passable by November 10 and completed on November 11.)
  Back at Lower Ferry, a new floating bridge was once again in place by December 10, according to diary entries by British Army officer John André, who would go on to be the Army's chief of intelligence. On December 22, a large British force moved westward across the bridge and camped three miles from Darby. On December 28, the bridge was pulled up, perhaps to protect it from winter ice, as the Army moved north to cross back into the city at the Middle Ferry bridge.
  The British rebuilt the bridge at Gray's Ferry in the spring of 1778, and left it intact when they withdrew from the city that June. On August 7, 1778, the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania wrote to the Pennsylvania General Assembly, saying, "In the course of the war it has been found useful to lay a bridge across the Schuylkill at this city. Another bridge over that river was erected by General Washington at Providence [near Valley Forge] in this county. And a third built by the enemy [the Gray's Ferry bridge] remains entire. It is worthy of consideration how these truly convenient structures may be rendered lastingly useful. The terms on which they may be passed ought to be settled." Later that year, the deal was set: the U.S. government would pay 800 pounds annually for the maintenance of the bridge.
  Ice smashed the bridge to pieces in 1780, leading the Council to pay Major Benjamin Eyre 7,500 pounds to rebuild it. The rebuilt bridge featured a deck over planks attached to the logs, with anchors in mid-stream to steady it and railings for safety. Flexible, it rose and fell with the tide. Heavy wagons often depressed the deck a few inches below the water. A 1796 traveler wrote, "Although this bridge floated when not charged, or charged but lightly, the weight of our waggon depressed it several inches below the surface, the horses splashing through the water so that a foot passenger passing at the same time would have been exposed to serious inconvenience." The bridge had a draw that could be lifted with ropes to allow boats to pass by. The whole span could be unmoored and allowed to float downstream in times of ice or heavy weather, then restored to service.
  The advantages of a permanent bridge were clear, but none would be built for several decades. In 1806, a "Gray's Ferry Bridge Company" was chartered, but it bore no fruit.
  In 1828, Martin Kochersperger noted that 304 vessels passed through the bridge in the month of March: 37 schooners, 106 sloops and shallops, 28 oyster boats, 98 curial boats, 16 fishing b
caption: From 1777 and through at least 1839, a series of floating bridges offered passage at Gray's, or Lower, Ferry. 1816 painting by Joshua Rowley Watson
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