By Matthew Cumberledge, GCHS Executive Director
Greene and Fayette counties have always been next door neighbors, each holding their claim to one side of the Monongahela River. That very river, which in many ways was the life blood of the region, also posed a barrier for traffic between the two counties. In the earliest years a system of ferries dotted the curving banks of the mighty Mon, transporting people and goods from side to side. In 1925, inter-county travel become much easier and convenient.
Farris Engineering Company designed a large, multi-span truss bridge that would connect Fayette and Greene counties between the communities of Little Chicago and Paisley on the Greene County side, and Masontown on the Fayette County side. Construction of the bridge was completed in 1925 by the Independent Bridge Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
It was a unique bridge, in the sense that it utilized an older style of construction, mainly with the joints being pinned together in lieu of the riveted connections that were more common at the time. Adding to the unusual, a few of the connections between steel members were created with a hybrid of pins and rivets.
Unfortunately the narrowness of this bridge brought its demise in 2013, when a new, wider bridge was built to replace the old steel trussed structure, leaving the Brownsville Inter-county bridge as one of the last remaining pinned truss bridges in the state.
The March artifact features an interesting example of early 20th century engineering. It is a very large, 24” x 36” cloth and leather bound folio that contains the original fabrication and construction drawings for the original Masontown Bridge. This set of plans was generated from the plans specified by the engineers at Farris Engineering Company and sent to the steel fabricator to fabricate each individual steel member of the bridge. After fabrication was complete, the drawings were used at the work site to assist the iron workers building the bridge, showing them how to assemble the various individual steel members. In the industry today, a set of drawings such as these would be known as a structural steel detail drawing package.
This wonderfully unique and historically important set of drawings is available for viewing at the Greene County Historical Society Museum upon request. It is currently part of our Library Collection, and within the coming season we anticipate – for the first time ever – having our library open and available for public use! Please keep an eye on our Facebook page for updates, and be sure to come out and visit us on Opening Day, April 25th, 2020!
