Rev. Muhlenberg, who brought the Lutheran Church to America in 1742, had three parishes: Philadelphia, Trappe and New Hanover. From the day of his arrival, crossing the Perkiomen Creek at Collegeville was an ordeal: Nov. 26, 1742, “We rode in the company of several German men. Towards evening we crossed the Bergame [Perkiomen]. The stream had risen with the rain and became deep; my horse was too feeble and the current too strong, as a result of which I was half immersed in the water, and since we still had eight miles to ride I caught a chill.” His journals record that as late as 1777, there was no bridge of any kind over the Perkiomen, and indeed, the bridge date stone records that it was built in 1799. Today, the Collegeville bridge is said to be the oldest bridge on a major road in the entire nation.
A writer named Edward Hocker did a well researched column on local history under the pen name “Norris” in the Norristown Times Herald during the 1920s and 1930s. Preserved in the archives of the Historical Society of Montgomery County, these columns are a real “find” for researchers. He did at least three articles on the bridge history, and I will quote from them.
The names of the masons, carpenter, architect and superintendent are carved on the bridge date stone. You can see the stone on the crest of the bridge. Of course, dodging traffic, you take your life in your hands if you try to walk out to see it.
The May 1938 column quotes a descendent of one of the “undertakers of masonry, John Pugh,” who said: “‘Tales of the difficulties of crossing the Perkiomen before the bridge was built have been handed down in our family,’ writes Mr. [Alexander] Pugh. ‘In the stages of high water teamsters gathered on both sides of the stream and waited until the ford became passable. That was the reason for the existence of the hotel standing on the northerly side. According to our family tradition, there was also a hotel on the southerly side.'”
“Mr. Pugh further points out why the bridge was not built so as to constitute a straight connection between the road below the bridge and that above. ‘As the road on the upper side approached the Perkiomen a short distance east of the road on the lower side, to make a straight connection it would have been necessary to build the bridge diagonally across the stream. Such connection was not considered altogether safe. Furthermore, to keep down costs the bridges were made as short as possible and hence was built at right angles to the banks.'”
At one time advertised as the oldest hotel in the country, the Perkiomen Bridge Hotel on the north side had dated back to before 1701.
Built of Chester County brown sandstone in 1799, the Perkiomen bridge is a beautiful structure, graceful and elegant. Two hundred and nine years later, the spans still support the full weight of modern day traffic. Interestingly, modern reinforced concrete bridges in this area will last about 100 years at best. There were several lotteries to raise the anticipated $20,000 construction cost. It actually cost nearly $60,000, and the commissioners allowed tolls to be collected until the difference was made up.
“As the Perkiomen bridge is an outstanding landmark of Pennsylvania and a fine specimen of old time craftsmanship, it is proper that due credit should be given the men who built it 139 [now 216] years ago.” John Lewis was a stone mason then of high standing and it is his name that is carved as the superintendent of construction. When we look at the stone arches, we are looking at just the end arch. The bridge is made of a series of these arches lain side by side one against the other. Wooden forms had to be built upon which to lay the carefully shaped stones until the top keystone was placed locking the whole arch together. If one stone falls, the whole arch is destabilized and falls.
The following year, John Lewis was in charge of the masonry work on the first permanent bridge across the Schuylkill in Philadelphia. An unnamed diarist recorded that: “John Lewis, the stone mason, conducted me into the pit for the eastern abutment where the cornerstone was prepared and waiting for the ceremony, to show me the inscription which he had cut on it a series of 11 capital letters and the date Oct. XVIII, MDCCC.” To the diarist, the letters meant nothing, and he asked the mason for an explanation. Lewis said they were the first letters of each of the following words: “This First Corner Stone Of The Schuylkill Permanent Bridge Was Laid Oct. 18, 1800.”
“But,” continued the visitor, “when the stone is unearthed after many years, how will anyone know what the inscription means?”
Lewis’s reply was, “Why, sir, by the time they dig up that stone the people will be much more larned than you and me be.”
The Collegeville bridge, of course, would have been a boon and a blessing to the hundreds of freight wagons and foot traffic that crossed each week. By the middle of the 19th century, four different toll roads met at the bridge: Gravel Pike (Route 29), Ridge Pike, Germantown Pike and Reading Pike (Route 422). Needing to turn a profit and operating on the theory that those who use the road should pay for it, in 1867 one of them erected a toll house on the bridge itself. Local citizens threw the toll gate into the creek and burned the toll house. In 1873, a second toll house was erected nearby after a court ordered that a gate could not be erected within a mile of the bridge. Local citizens burned that toll house too.
In 1928, the bridge was widened by a total of 15 feet on the north side with the stone facing being a replacement of the original stones. The view of the bridge from the south side (that is the side seen approaching Collegeville from Norristown) is still the original 1799 stone work.
The Historian is produced by the New Hanover Historical Society. Call Robert Wood at 610-326-4165 with comments.