Hill to Hill Bridge
| Hill to Hill Bridge | |
|---|---|
Hill to Hill Bridge heading northbound
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| Coordinates | 40°36′56″N 75°23′05″W / 40.6155°N 75.3846°WCoordinates: 40°36′56″N 75°23′05″W / 40.6155°N 75.3846°W |
| Carries | 4 lanes of  PA 378 and 2 sidewalks |
| Crosses | Lehigh River |
| Locale | Bethlehem, Pennsylvania |
| Official name | Hill to Hill Bridge |
| Other name(s) | Route 378 Bridge |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | concrete arch truss bridge |
| History | |
| Opened | 1924 |
| Statistics | |
| Toll | Free |
The Hill to Hill Bridge is a road crossing of the Lehigh River linking the south and north sides of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It was completed in 1924. It carries Pennsylvania Route 378 from Wyandotte Street on the city's south side to a series of ramps and viaducts on the north side. It replaced a two-lane covered bridge and eliminated several grade crossings of three railroads on the two banks of the Lehigh River. It is located in the Central Bethlehem Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, with a Boundary Increase in 1988.
Prior to Bethlehem's incorporation as a city in 1917, the north side and the south side were independent municipalities. During the latter part of the 1910s, three bridges crossed between Bethlehem and South Bethlehem: the Minsi Trail bridge, the New Street bridge, and the Main Street covered bridge. The Main Street bridge was narrow and was regularly damaged by floods and ice. It crossed several tracks of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Reading Railroad on the south side as it led to Wyandotte Street. The Pacific Hotel stood between the southern portal to the covered bridge; the adjacent image shows the active freight and passenger railroad tracks travelers crossed to reach the bridge. To the right (not visible) was Union Station (or Union Depot), the passenger station of the Lehigh Valley and Reading Railroads with service to Buffalo, Harrisburg, New York (Jersey City), and Philadelphia.
On the north side, it crossed the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Canal and the tracks of the Central Railroad of New Jersey before continuing up Seminary Hill (named for the Moravian Church's Female Seminary) to the Main Street business district.
Community leaders found the covered bridge to be a barrier to commerce between "the Bethlehems". As a result of the consolidation of the two municipalities into a single city, sufficient resources became available to design and construct a new bridge connecting Fountain Hill and Seminary Hill.
By 1921, a commission was in place to design and oversee the construction of the new Lehigh River span. Commission members were the city's first mayor, Archibald Johnston (chairman), J.S. Krause (vice-chairman), G.H. Blakeley, O.L. Henninger (representing Lehigh County), A.A. Woodring (representing Northampton County), A. Geo. Shoffner (secretary), Dallett H. Wilson (counsel) and C.W. Hudson (engineer).
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