ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the Phoenix Bridge Works because its experience parallels the development of iron bridge building in America. The Phoenix Bridge Works lies nestled in the Schuylkill valley about an hour out of Philadelphia on the Reading Railroad. In the 1870s, Phoenix was one of the few establishments where the birthing of a bridge could be observed from raw iron ore to the finished product. Advanced engineering and assembly practices enabled American bridge companies to compete successfully in world markets with a pin-connected, wrought-iron bridge product called the "American system" by foreign competitors. August Canfield, a West Point graduate working in Paterson, New Jersey, who patented the first iron bridge in America in 1833. Several of America's oldest all-iron railroad bridges survive, the oldest being the West Manayunk Bridge, followed by Halls Station, and three from the Pennsylvania system built c1854.
