Ewing Road Bridge

Information and Findings From Pennsylvania's Historic Bridge Inventory

Discussion of Bridge

The one-span, 33'-long bridge is composed of concrete-encased rolled steel beam stringers with the bottom flanges exposed. It has plain concrete parapets and is supported on stone abutments. Fieldstone wingwalls with parapets enclose the approach roadways. Concrete encasement was favored in the state because it provided protection for the steel and eliminated the need to periodically paint the beams. A representative example of one of the most common, 20th century bridge types and designs in the state, it has no innovative or technologically noteworthy details. It is not significant for its setting or context. It is one of over 740 surviving pre-1957 examples, with the oldest dating to about 1900, and more than 35 to before 1911. A more distinguished example in the Chester County context is BMS#15 3016 0030 2812, the earliest identified example in the county and listed as a contributing resource to the Hopewell HD.

Discussion of Surrounding Area

The bridge carries a 2 lane road over a stream in a rural area of active farms and scattered late-20th-century residential subdivisions. At the bridge's southwest quadrant is a new house, and to the southeast quadrant is a trailer home. Open fields are to the north. The setting does not have historic district potential.

Bridge Considered Historic By Survey: Yes