Skew Bridge
Encyclopedia
The Skew Bridge, also known as the Askew Bridge and nicknamed the Soap and Whiskey Bridge, is a historical skew arch
bridge completed in 1857 carrying two tracks of the Reading Railroad
at an angle over Sixth Street in Reading
, Berks County
, Pennsylvania
.
The bridge was designed by Richard Osborne in 1856. He submitted a model to the company made of pieces of soap before construction and workers were paid partially in whiskey, leading to the unusual nickname.
The main arch of the bridge spans 40 feet, with two smaller arches spanning the sidewalks on either side. The courses of the arch are constructed from local brownstone in elliptical curves which follow the angle at which the railroad tracks cross the street. Because of this design, there is no keystone in the arch.
In 1951 the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
placed a historical marker
on the site, and in 1973 the bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
.
Skew arch
A skew arch is a method of construction that enables an arch bridge to span an obstacle at some angle other than a right angle. This results in the faces of the arch not being perpendicular to its abutments and its plan view being a parallelogram, rather than the rectangle that is the plan view of...
bridge completed in 1857 carrying two tracks of the Reading Railroad
Reading Company
The Reading Company , usually called the Reading Railroad, officially the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road and then the Philadelphia and Reading Railway until 1924, operated in southeast Pennsylvania and neighboring states...
at an angle over Sixth Street in Reading
Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...
, Berks County
Berks County, Pennsylvania
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 373,638 people, 141,570 households, and 98,532 families residing in the county. The population density was 435 people per square mile . There were 150,222 housing units at an average density of 175 per square mile...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
.
The bridge was designed by Richard Osborne in 1856. He submitted a model to the company made of pieces of soap before construction and workers were paid partially in whiskey, leading to the unusual nickname.
The main arch of the bridge spans 40 feet, with two smaller arches spanning the sidewalks on either side. The courses of the arch are constructed from local brownstone in elliptical curves which follow the angle at which the railroad tracks cross the street. Because of this design, there is no keystone in the arch.
In 1951 the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission is the governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania responsible for the collection, conservation and interpretation of Pennsylvania's historic heritage...
placed a historical marker
Historical marker
A historical marker or historic marker is an indicator such as a plaque or sign to commemorate an event or person of historic interest and to associate that point of interest with a specific locale one can visit.-Description:...
on the site, and in 1973 the bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.