A former 8th Wonder of the World and a Zippo Car

Buckaloons FS Campground, Warren, PA 7-6 though 7-2015

In 1882 a towering railroad bridge made of rivets and iron was built across the Kinzua Valley in Pennsylvania. 2053 feet long and 301 feet high above the valley floor it was advertised as the 8th wonder of the world. People traveled from all over to see this engineering marvel.

It was not without it’s idiosyncrasies through. High winds through the valley would sway the bridge and would blow the tops off of boxcars. At one time the wind was so strong it blew the bridge out of alignment. After that train traffic was limited to 5mph.

In 1900, the bridge was rebuilt out of steel. It remained in service until 1953 and was sold to the State of Pennsylvania in 1963. Nature took its toll as the bridge deteriorated until 2003 when a F-1 tornado knocked down the middle sections.

After that, it was decided to turn the bridge into a “Skywalk” complete with a glass floor at the end. It began to rain the day we visited but it was still impressive. However, we got drenched.

We dried out on the way to Bradford, PA to see the Zippo Museum. Bradford was another tired old town that had seen better days.

We drove around and around looking for some houses said to be painted in the style of San Francisco row houses, but never did find any. Then we zeroed in on the Zippo Museum. What a quirky fun place it was. Zippo street lamps, a Zippo car, and a Zippo US flag.

And you could even get your Zippo gold plated.

Zippos became popular with US soldiers in WWII when Z ippo stopped producing Zippos for public sale and concentrated on manufacturing them for the military. Although they never had a government contract to supply lighters to the military, soldiers demanded that base and post exchanges carry their treasured Zippos. During the war, due to the steel shortage, Zippos were made of brass covered with a black crinkle finish. Soldiers had their lighters engraved with personal mottos and now these lighters are highly sought after.

So far today we had a lot of sitting time in the Element and it was time for some exercise on the way back to Warren. Just outside of Bradford we found the Marilla Bridges Trail. Marilla is Celtic for “Shining Sea”. It was a nice one mile gravel loop around a lake in the woods. We didn’t let a light drizzle quash our need for some exercise. The covered bridge spans the spillway that contains the Marilla Reservoir. The reservoir was constructed in 1898 to supply water to the City of Bradford via a 12 inch main. The covered bridge, other than serving as a passage over the spillway, seems to be a monument to Erik Benjamin. As to who he is, we could find no information.

And then it was time for the drive back to Buckaloons in the drizzle.