Historical
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Starrucca Viaduct
Strung across a quarter-mile-wide valley within sight of the upper Susquehanna River, the seventeen-arch Starrucca Viaduct stands as a monument to nineteenth-century engineering. Completed in 1848, it remains the oldest stone-arch railroad bridge still in use in Pennsylvania, and one of the oldest in the United States.
Two quarries just two and four miles away supplied the primary material: native Pennsylvania bluestone, a bluish-green variant of sandstone. Wooden falsework provided the framing on which the bridge was shaped. Concrete and stone footings formed the base, upon which masons fashioned the piers, arches, and spandrel walls (the sections above the piers and between the arches) of bluestone. The highest piers rose sixty-five feet from their bases; each of the seventeen arches measured fifty-one feet wide and twenty feet high. In all, the bridge stood 100 feet above the valley floor.
Completed at a cost of $335,000, Starrucca, when opened, was one of the most expensive railroad bridges ever built. In May 1851, NY&E's inaugural special carried among its passengers U.S. Senator Daniel Webster from Massachusetts and U.S. President Millard Fillmore who, when the train stopped at Starrucca, joined in the inspection. After a number of name changes and mergers, the NY&E became part of the Erie Railroad, which extended to Chicago.
The History and Science behind our bluestone
Bluestone is simply a sandstone that contains no ore and is made primarily of quartz. What makes bluestone so special is a story that begins over 400 million years ago in the Endless Mountains of Susquehanna County. At this time, the area was covered in a Delta system of rivers running into an ancient sea. That Delta system was named the Catskill Delta.
The Catskill River Delta was formed from watershed rushing from the Arcadian Mountains which covered an area that we know today as New York City! The Catskill River Delta created a narrow path from the southwest to the northwest and today provides us with the high quality Pennsylvania Bluestone that we get from our quarries in the Catskills and Northeast Pennsylvania.
Over millions of years, the oceans receded and the rivers changed their course. Left behind were clams, shells, and ferns which were caught in deposits of sediment (sand). Those organisms fossilized and the sediment turned to rock, know today as Pennsylvania Bluestone.