As some of you may know, Bucks County is rehabilitating its bridge on Callowhill Street in Perkasie and East Rockhill until early November 2023. But did you know the bridge had another name when the first version was built in 1881?
County inspection records from 1919 show the first bridge was called the Stout’s Ford bridge. The bridge was an impressive structure with four stone arches, built by Henry H. Hartzell, when the county commissioners were Henry C. Hartzell, Thomas Lovett, and Edward Tomlinson. When Bucks County architect and engineer A. Oscar Martin inspected the bridge on July 25, 1919, he noted that deck was macadam, and the rest of the bridge was stone, with its wing walls topped with concrete. At the time, the bridge was in East Rockhill Township.
Callowhill Street Bridge in 1919
Martin’s Line Drawing, 1919
In May 1948, the Bucks County Commissioners advertised a replacement bridge for Callowhill Street. The bridge was reopened in early December 1948 but work continued on the bridge through September 1949. The street had to be raised on both sides of the bridge by 8 inches to accommodate the new bridge. Perkasie Borough and Bucks County split the cost of the $5,000 road project.
Tri-County Construction of North Hills, Pa., built the new Callowhill Street bridge at a cost of about $32,000 and it used reinforced concrete for the structure. Tri-County also built the bridge that replaced the South Perkasie Covered Bridge in 1958 on South Main Street.
The bridge today
Eastern Highway Specialists is the contractor on the project, with engineering by Carrol Engineering Corporation. The cost of the project is $642,527.20, including the rehabilitation of T-beam structure, and environmental including sediment and pollution controls.
