Spread across the back lot of Bach Ornamental and Structural Steel in St. Johns, Michigan, lies a historic craftsman’s record written in forty five cast iron bridge sections from the 1830s. This is a record of the first cast iron bridge in the United States, constructed on a road from Cumberland on the Potomac River through Wheeling on the Ohio River and farther westward. A number of bridges had to be fabricated on this National Road, and Captain Richard Delafield of the U.S. Corps of Engineers conceived an idea for a cast iron bridge across Dunlap’s Creek at Brownsville, Pennsylvania. Delafield’s cast iron bridge would differ from most European cast iron bridges in that it was designed with hollow sections. Casting these iron sections required one wood pattern which would standardize their form. What would make this work challenging is that every casting would need a new sand core to create the hollow interior. Delafield contracted with John Snowden of Vulcan Iron and Machine Works in Brownsville to fabricate the bridge, the first of its kind in the United States. Snowden began his work in iron as a blacksmith in Scarborough, England, and emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1818. Snowden’s foreman was John Herbertson, who learned his trade as a cabinetmaker in Glasgow, Scotland, and emigrated to the United States in 1822, moving to Brownsville in 1827.
It is exciting and a privilege to experience the opportunity to follow the rehabilitation work and the eventual re-erection of this country’s first cast iron bridge. Future articles will illustrate the craftsmanship of Nels Raynor and his crew at Bach Ornamental and Structural Steel, along with the craftsmen before him, John Snowden and John Herbertson.
