The Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Tinicum Township community members have been fighting against PennDOT to save the Headquarters Road Bridge and the health of the Tinicum Creek.
Today it is this pristine Tinicum Creek and an irreplaceable piece of history that the government is willing to sacrifice – tomorrow it might be yours. Let’s stand together to secure a precedent of commonsense protection that will ensure we all are valued and protected.
The Delaware Riverkeeper Network and community members have been fighting to have the Headquarters Road Bridge rehabilitated rather than demolished and replaced by PennDOT.
It’s an unfair situation. PennDOT’s goals have been focused on the demolition and replacement of the bridge rather than listening to the appeals of the community to find an honorable solution that will protect the pristine Tinicum Creek from irreversible harm, and serve the transportation needs of the region. In addition, local property owners may have their property rights taken by eminent domain to serve an oversized project they neither want nor need.
With your help, we need to get the message out to friends, neighbors and everyone concerned with losing a precious piece of Pennsylvania history and the integrity of an Exceptional Value stream, and send our elected officials a message to halt PennDOT’s plans to demolish the bridge this June.
We also need to demand that the National Park Service respond to the community’s request for reconsideration of the situation. They were asked over a year ago. Rather than respond, they have ignored the request and forced the case into court.
Built in 1812, the Headquarters Road Bridge is the oldest surviving pier style bridge in Pennsylvania. The bridge sits in the heart of the Ridge Valley National Register Rural Historic District. The Headquarters Road Bridge spans the Tinicum Creek which is cited as an Exceptional Value stream and a National Wild & Scenic stream that feeds into the Delaware River.
If the bridge is demolished, a rare, historical Pennsylvania artifact will have been needlessly destroyed and forever lost. But equally important, experts have warned that the water quality, wildlife and ecology of the Tinicum Creek are in danger of being harmed due to the demolition. Once this bridge is gone, there’s no going back. The demolition will cause irreversible damage both to the creek and to America’s historical engineering record and heritage.
If the bridge is not saved, its historic surroundings won’t survive either. What is now the most intact historic landscape in Bucks County will be destroyed, its trees and fenced fields and forest downstream of the bridge eroded away by the entirely new course on which PennDOT’s bridge will send the stream.
There are alternatives to the destruction of this irreplaceable historic structure and the now pristine stream it crosses. The design plans from one of the premier historic restoration firms in the nation would repair the bridge, cost less to taxpayers than demolishing and replacing it, and would protect the Tinicum Creek all at the same time. There is even precedent for PennDOT successfully restoring historic bridges in the area - PennDOT can do it, but for some reason it is choosing not to.
We need your help and support! State and Federal agencies have deferred to PennDOT’s solution by granting permits to move forward in the demolition. Only your elected officials and responsible agency heads can stop this project so your voice needs to be heard.
Take action here to tell the National Park Service and Governor Wolf, along with others, that this bridge and the Exceptional Value Tinicum Creek must be saved.
With just a few clicks you can join with others from around the state and nation to urge sensible good government action that serves the people by protecting history and nature.
For your convenience, use this form to tell them this bridge is worth saving.
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ore than a bridge is at stake.