A walk across some Central Penn history
Henszey’s Wrought Iron Bridge was a moving statement for the direction of the college
By Gabryelle Breski
Knightly News Reporter
gabryelle.breski@mymail.centralpenn.edu
The saying “We will cross that bridge when we get to it” was used quite literally for Central Penn College in the early 2000s.
As students and faculty use the Advanced Technology Education Center, or ATEC, they can simply cross the Henszey’s Bridge, which connects ATEC from the back of the building, to visit Bollinger Hall, the library, the Underground and the Quad.
However, when the building was built, ATEC was not connected to the rest of campus as it is today. ATEC also doubled the size of Central Penn’s campus teaching facilities and opened the conference center.
Former Central Penn President Todd A. Milano heard of a few historic bridges that the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation was planning to auction and knew this would fit his vision for the college.
“The bridge would serve as a symbol of the College – both are rich in history, both withstood the test of time, both provide access and would become the college brand,” Milano said in a record on file with the Central Penn College Education Foundation.
Central Penn has also moved locations and changed names, just as the bridge has.
Changes of venue
The first use of the bridge was to carry Main Street over the Trout Creek in Slatington, in northern Lehigh County.
Then, in 1900, the bridge was moved to Wanamakers, also in northern Lehigh County, to cross over the Ontelaunee Creek.
The bridge was closed in 1986 and was eventually put up for auction in 2001.
PennDOT puts some decommissioned bridges up for auction due to their historic significance.
For example, this bridge on campus today is named after the person who built it, Joseph G. Henszey, in 1869.
Henszey was not the typical engineer. At the time, engineers were hard to come by and bridges to cross large creeks and small rivers needed to be built. Therefore, a new group of engineers was created, called the “apple tree engineers.”
The bridge that began in Slatington is one of America’s last remaining wrought-iron arch-truss bridges.
As stated previously, and according to the records in the college’s education foundation, the bridge has been moved often, but each time, a new name was given to the bridge. The bridge has been named Henszey’s Wrought Iron Bridge, Allemaengel Road Bridge, Mosser’s Bridge, Billig Bridge and Ontelaunee Creek Bridge, and eventually it was rededicated as the Central Penn Bridge.
The moving of bridges like this is historic and began following the Civil War and continued until about the 1890s, when engineers began building with steel.
In 2001, Milano made a bid on the bridge for $22 and won the auction. It seems that Milano could have won with a smaller bid, but 22 is his lucky number, according to long-time Central Penn employee Mary Wetzel, the college’s associate vice president for advancement.
Milano even took a group of staff members to see the bridge at its original location before moving it for refurbishment, Wetzel wrote in “PennNotes,” an employee newsletter, about the trip.
An article in the education foundation files, written by Elizabeth Bartolai, of The (Allentown) Morning Call, said refurbishing and moving the bridge to Central Penn cost $220,000. The money came from the college’s general budget.
Wetzel also shared that Harolld Stahle Jr., a member of the Central Penn College Board of Directors and the son of the person the Central Penn College museum (on campus but not open at this time) is named after, donated money for the trip to see the bridge.
From one college to another
Bucknell University, in Lewisburg, participated in the process of fixing up Henszey’s bridge by including three to four engineering students with some Bucknell faculty to refurbish the historic piece. The bridge needed a few add-ons, such as the black fence for safety and some repairs for it to be safe to walk across. The wood boards also had to be replaced.
On May 6, 2002, Henszey’s Wrought Iron Bridge crossed three counties to arrive in Summerdale. The bridge was said to be a symbol of “the quality hands-on education the college provides to connect students to their career dreams.”
The bridge is 93 feet long and 15 feet wide.
In 2003, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and Preservation Pennsylvania, a history-preserving charity, rewarded Central Penn College with their Stewardship Award for saving the bridge.
Wetzel also shared the experience of the bridge landing on campus. She watched from a staircase in ATEC as a large truck brought the pieces of the bridge and a crane placed the pieces where they needed to be.
Kristi Castanzo, assistant to current Central Penn President Linda Fedrizzi-Williams, recalled the same day driving on U.S. Route 11/15 and waiting during her drive for the bridge to come across the highway on a truck. Castanzo said that a tractor trailer held the pieces of the bridge, and a crane lifted the bridge onto the campus onto abutments that had been installed.
Another interesting fact about Castanzo’s experience with the bridge is that she helped design Milano’s smart car that had the bridge across the side.
A new motto
Wetzel stated that the tag of the school became “Your bridge to success.”
At the end of the bridge, a plaque stands to describe the history of the bridge.
A pamphlet printed when the bridge was embedded into Central Penn’s community and culture has an interesting – author unknown – poem that ends with, “Your walk into a better life, begins when you commit, and begin to build a future, with your own bridge ebbed in it.”
Another bit of information that then-communications faculty member Michelle Danguiro wrote for the pamphlet stated, “And when our students cross over this bridge, they also will be crossing over a bridge more significant than a bridge comprised of wrought-iron and wood and steel.”
This explains the steps students at Central Penn College are taking to better their education in their field so that they can better their communities.
Danguiro wrote in a Harrisburg Patriot-News article on May 6, 2002, about the relationship between Central Penn faculty and their students, “The ‘spans’ within the college community are very close. The cohesion among faculty, staff, and students evenly disperses the weight of work and responsibility, leaving no one to bear the load alone.”
Comment or story idea? Contact KnightlyEditors@CentralPenn.Edu.
Breski is president of The Knightly News Media Club @ Central Penn College and a corporate communications major.
Edited by media-club coadviser and blog editor Professor Michael Lear-Olimpi.
