Upper Makefield seeks historic seal to save Washington Crossing Bridge. Will it work?

Upper Makefield has hired an independent consultant to submit an old part of Washington Crossing village for designation as a historic district by the state preservation office.

The move is part of the township's efforts to prevent the replacement of the Washington Crossing Bridge, which would be in the new district. Officials and residents have said a wider span over the Delaware River, as is being considered now, would destroy the original structure and could bring more congestion to the area.

The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission recently approved an $8 million contract to explore rebuilding and expanding the Washington Crossing Bridge, which is its narrowest bridge with lanes that are 7 1/2 feet wide. For comparison, the standard width of an interstate highway lane is at least 12 feet.

Although the the bridge passed its most recent inspection, in 2022, the commission considers the skinny span between Bucks County, Pennsylvania and and Mercer County, New Jersey "functionally obsolete." But the current three-ton weight limit and 10-foot clearance keeps tractor trailers off the bridge, and some residents are concerned that a wider bridge will increase traffic in the village and endanger pedestrians.

The bridge serves about 7,000 cars daily.

The board of supervisors in Upper Makefield, where Washington Crossing is located, approved the preservation consultant's proposal in June.

"In light of current events and the threat that a larger, heavier bridge would have to our historic district, this isn't something we'd want to go lightly with," Supervisor Thomas Cino said at the meeting last month.

Despite its rich and well-known history — where Gen. George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware in the Revolutionary War surprising the Hessian Army and changing the tide of the war, the village isn't officially recognized as a historic district by the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office.

The Upper Makefield board allocated up to $3,300 for the preservation consultant's work, which will include both evaluating the historic merits of the area and submitting the application to the state. The consultant is Jeffrey Marshall, former president of the Heritage Conservancy, a land conservation and preservation nonprofit.

What is Taylorsville?

The historic designation application would be submitted for the district of Taylorsville, as the Washington Crossing area was known before 1918.

The original Taylorsville section of the village features multiple 19th-century buildings, as well as a reconstructed blacksmith shop used for tours.

A renovation project to restore many of the buildings in Washington Crossing Historic Park began in 2021 with $8.7 million from the state, according to the park's website.

The renovations also created more space in the park for tourists; more than 10,000 people visit the park annually, including for the annual reenactment of the Continental Army's Christmas night crossing of the Delaware River to attack Hessian troops, a major turning point in the Revolutionary War.

If the application succeeds, it may allow Upper Makefield to make a case for keeping heavy traffic out of Washington Crossing. Last year, a preservation group in a historic area of Lincolnshire, England found that the vibrations from truck traffic past listed buildings was damaging the structures, and may have contributed to a ceiling collapse in one historic building.

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The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission said in a statement last month that it would weigh the historical value of the local area in its review process. The consultant "is required to evaluate and develop context-sensitive solutions" in light of the cultural resources there, it wrote.

Is the Washington Crossing Bridge historic?

But the Washington Crossing Bridge might be historic enough on its own, as some residents have argued.

The 120-year-old bridge is a double Warren truss structure, and these metal bridges are becoming rare, according to Tyra Guyton of the state preservation office.

The supporting structure underneath the Washington Crossing span is even older, made of rubble stone-faced masonry from the original 1830s bridge.

Michael Emmons, an architectural historian at the University of Delaware who is not involved in the preservation project, said the bridge "most certainly could be considered historic," noting that most of the 1904 structure appears to have been maintained.

The bridge was built in "the golden age of metal truss bridge construction — an important chapter in America's industrial age," he said.

Despite its age and history, the bridge is not protected on any preservation list, including by the state or on the National Register of Historic Places.

A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission confirmed that the Washington Crossing bridge is eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The bridge's connection to Taylorsville and the Washington Crossing Historic Park may also make the span significant, the spokesperson said, but "further consideration of these areas is needed."

Upper Makefield previously attempted to get state historic designation for Washington Crossing in 1991, according to a Philadelphia Inquirer story at the time. Cino wasn't sure why it didn't happen. "If this place isn't historic..." he said.

Almost 40% of Upper Makefield's land is permanently preserved, according to the township website.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Washington Crossing bridge to shut down? Preservation bid may save it