People may be skeptical, but exploring local historical sites can be a lot of fun. My children were among those skeptics when we headed out one Friday to visit the Berks County Heritage Center in Wyomissing, Penn. We decided to approach the center the long way, parking at the Red Bridge Recreation Center lot off Tulpehocken Road. We took a gently curving path through the woods and found the Wertz’s Red Bridge.
An impressive 204-feet long, the Red Bridge crosses Tulpehocken Creek and is the longest single-spanned covered bridge in all of Pennsylvania. We walked across the bridge (now forbidden to vehicles) and admired the heavy plank flooring, the graceful curves of the infrastructure and glimpses of (probably illegal) graffiti. A metal plaque at one end noted the bridge’s place in history, a marker on the other side further explained its history. Wert’s Bridge is one of five remaining bridges in Berks County. A plan for a future Fun Friday was made to visit the other four bridges in our county.
Just past the bridge, we spotted the visitors’ center, housed in a graceful stone farm house. Inside, a friendly guide explained tours were available for two sections of the site: the Gruber Wagon Works and the C. Howard Hiester Canal Center. Due to time constraints, we opted to tour the canal center only. We paid reasonable tour fees (reduced rates are available for children) and watched a short video before heading to the canal center, housed in an old, barn-like structure near the creek.
Our tour guide at the center was Glen, a self-professed “canal nut” with 60 years of experience in canals. He took our group through the center, carefully explaining the history behind canals in our area and highlighting their importance in trade and travel. The canal industry opened up the world to area residents of the 1800s, he said, displaying a map of four thousand miles of tow paths that traversed the United States at that time. “You could get on a canal at the foot of Bingham Street and go anywhere, literally anywhere, on the map,” he said, “And all from downtown Reading.”
The hour-long tour highlighted much of this history. We saw old photos of the canal boats, often 100 feet long but only about eight feet wide, and learned about the men who owned them and the workers and animals who ran them. On a model of a mule sporting a fly-net, Glen commented on the strength, smarts and – yes – stubbornness of these animals so key to the trade. My son was impressed by the displays explaining the working of the locks along the canal ways. My daughter liked the models of the different kinds of boats. Both enjoyed looking into an actual locksman’s shanty, reconstructed in the canal center, which had 100-year old graffiti including a cartoon of Uncle Sam and a warning, “No Bums Welcome.”
After leaving the canal center, we explored paths winding the different structures and along the Tulpehocken Creek. We found a houseboat, “Mildred,” which was closed. We hope to return another day to tour it as well as the Wagon Works. The latter is a preserved shop dating to 1882, including many original tools. The works was meticulously moved from its original location in Mt. Pleasant, Penn., and reconstructed at the heritage center in 1976.
We also found the heritage center’s iconic sculpture, the Distelfink. This large structure greets visitors entering from the Red Bridge Road parking lot and is embellished with Pennsylvania German folk art. The name “distelfink” means thistle finch, and the bird is meant to wish happiness and luck to visitors. It was donated by the Berks Arts Council in 1985.
HINT: Visiting historical sites like these can be a challenge, as different members of your group may be more interested than others. To avoid this problem, I created simple, custom Bingo cards for my children before we left for the heritage center. By skimming the center’s website, I found items I knew they would find (i.e., a “brightly colored statue” for the Distelfink); I also added things like “find something blue” or “spot a baby or toddler.” Friendly competition kept my children interested as we toured the site. The promise of simple prizes didn’t hurt, either.
For more about the Berks County Heritage Center, visit countyofberks.com/parks or call 610.374.8839. Many events are planned at the center in the coming months, including “Hiking the Towpath” on Friday, July 17, and a “Step Back in Time Day” event on Sunday, July 26. Readers interested in visiting all SIX historic covered bridges in Berks County can find an easy-to-follow map at pacoveredbridges.com.
