NEW HOPE: Rededication ceremony Friday at pedestrian bridge

A popular destination for tourists

NEW HOPE – A rededication ceremony will be held Friday morning at the historic Lumberville-Raven Rock Toll-Supported Pedestrian Bridge, which links the Lumberville section of Solebury Township. with the Raven Rock section of Delaware Township, N.J.

 The ceremony will mark the conclusion of a multi-faceted rehabilitation project that began in early March, greatly enhancing the appearance and condition of the rare, multi-catenary footbridge that was constructed in 1947 by John A. Roebling’s Sons Company – the famed builders of the Brooklyn Bridge.
 
The event will be held (rain or shine) at 11 a.m.  May 24, near the bridge’s New
Jersey approach in the Bull’s Island Recreation Area, off Route 29 in Delaware
Township.
 
The ceremony is entitled “Connecting Communities, Canals and the Past.”
The Pledge of Allegiance will be led by veterans from American Legion Edgar H. Denson Post 79 in New Hope, and the National Anthem will be performed by Alexandra Switzler, a high school student from Delaware Township,
.
Anticipated participants include:
 
Joseph J. Resta, executive director, Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission
 
Karl Darby of Delaware Township, N.J. — a direct descendant of John Roebling’s
second son, Ferdinand, and chairman of the Roebling Museum in Florence, N.J.
 
Rick Dalton, park manager, Delaware Canal State Park, Pennsylvania
 
Tara Shepherd, executive director, Hunterdon County Rural Transit, New Jersey
 
 
According to Princeton author/historian Clifford W. Zink, the Lumberville-Raven Rock
bridge incorporated World War II-era cable stiffening and pre-stressed concrete innovations of the J.A.R.’s Sons Co., based in Trenton. The Roebling susperstructure sits atop the masonry piers and abutments that were originally constructed between 1853 and 1855 to support a former shareholder-owned covered wooden toll bridge.
 
In his book The Roebling Legacy, Mr. Zink writes: “J.A.R.’s Sons Co.’s wartime innovations of cable-stiffening and prestressed concrete considerably reduced the amount of steel needed in this 1947 pedestrian bridge.”
 
The bridge is a popular river crossing point for hikers, bicyclists and sightseers, serving as a connecting point between the Delaware Canal State Park in Pennsylvania and the Delaware-Raritan Canal State Park in New Jersey.