Skip to main content

Summer Vacation Road Trip - Washington and Greene Counties, PA

Back to some of the photos I took while in Pennsylvania over the 4th of July. On Saturday, July 5th, I headed out on a small road trip in rural Washington and Greene Counties. Mainly to explore parts of both counties that I hadn't seen or been to in years.

Route: PA 48, PA 51, I-70, PA 43, PA 88, PA 188, PA 221, PA 231, US 40, Old National Pike, I-70 and various routes to the South Hills and then home.

The entire flickr set is here.

I found two keystones along the way - Fredericktown and Jefferson. really need to get back to updating the site...I'm still working on West Virginia for what seems like forever - and I have at least three dozen keystones to add.

Just beyond Jefferson on PA 221 is the Cox Farm Covered Bridge. The bridge was built in 1940 and is a simple Kingpost Through Truss covered bridge - which is very widely used style of covered bridge in Southwestern PA.

Throughout out the trip, there were plenty of great rural barns like this one just a few hundred yards east of the PA 221/I-79 Interchange.

One of Fred Yenerall's subjects were rural one room schoolhouses. The simplicity of these buildings really tell a story. Where 221 meets PA 18 near Prosperity - there is a former one room schoolhouse - Archer No. 1.

I headed up PA 221 to US 40 and the Claysville 'S' Bridge. The stone arch bridge shaped like an S dates from the early days of the National Road in the early 1800's. The bridge is the centerpiece of a small roadside park. (Unfortunately, the sun was pretty much shining directly into the best photo angles.)



I continued on PA 221 north to its end at PA 231. I had traveled this part of 221 before, but I didn't recall seeing this great old truss bridge north of Taylorstown on Walker Hill Road.

My next stop was at the Sawhill Covered Bridge - which I first photographed in December 2003. But since then, it has been totally rehabilitated. In 2004, the bridge was damage from flooding rains from the remnants of Hurricane Ivan. The rebuild occurred in 2005.

Headed back towards Claysville on PA 231 and decided to follow the old National Pike (US 40) through West Alexander. This alignment begins at the Claysville Interchange (Exit 6) on I-70 and runs through West Alexander and into West Virginia.

I hadn't been on this stretch of the old highway - and it was actually a nice country drive.


I then headed towards Pittsburgh to visit relatives for dinner. On the way, I snapped a shot of this great old button copy relic from the Pittsburgh Department of Public Works.

Not a bad piece way to close out a road trip. One more set from this vacation is left - a walk around Elizabeth and Webster, PA

Comments

Steve A said…
I just realized that's the same S bridge I saw when I headed out to Indy. So there will be some more angles for photos once I get to that part of the update.

Popular posts from this blog

Cajon Pass; Cajon Pass Toll Road, National Old Trails Road, US Route 66/91/395 and Interstate 15

This past weekend I spent some time in Cajon Pass traversing the many historic road alignments. Cajon Pass is located in San Bernardino County, California along the San Andreas Fault.  Cajon Pass  serves the boundary line between the Mojave Desert, the San Gabriel Mountains, San Bernardino Mountains and San Bernardino Valley.  Cajon Pass is historically one of the most traveled transportation corridors in American California and presently is served by four rail lines, Interstate 15 and California State Route 138. While Cajon Pass is known mostly for carrying US Route 66 it has carried numerous other signed highways that have had a significant impact on regional and national road travel.  While this is my best attempt to compile everything from the best sources I could find into one single transportation history blog regarding road travel in Cajon Pass I suspect as time goes on this article will be frequently updated.  If you have any information that you ...

Pardee Dam Road

Pardee Dam is a 358-foot-high concrete structure located near Campo Seco at the Calaveras County and Amador County Line.  Pardee Dam impounds the Mokelumne River which forms the namesake Pardee Reservoir.  Pardee Dam was completed during 1929 and is part of the East Bay Municipal Utility District.  Pardee Dam is accessed by the namesake Pardee Dam Road which crosses the structure via the one-lane road seen as the blog cover photo.   Part 1; the history of Pardee Dam Road The closest community to Pardee Dam is that of Campo Seco on the Calaveras County side of the Mokelumne River.  Campo Seco was founded in 1850 by Mexican Miners who worked placer claims in Oregon Gulch during the height of the California Gold Rush.  Campo Seco would reach a population of about three hundred by 1860 spurred by the numerous mining claims in the area.  Main Street of Campo Seco flowed directly into the Campo Seco Turnpike which had been authorized by the California L...

California State Route 82/Old US Route 101 on the El Camino Real from San Francisco to Interstate 380

After completing Interstate 380 I made my way northward into the City Limits of San Francisco to drive the northernmost portion of California State Route 82. CA 82 is 52 mile State Route between I-280 in San Francisco southward to Interstate 880 in San Jose.  CA 82 is significant due to it being part of the historical surface alignment of US Route 101 and the El Camino Real. The "El Camino Real" was a Spanish Highway in Las Californias and Alta California which connected the 21 Catholic Missions along the coast.  Essentially the route of the El Camino Real was plotted out in the late 1700s from two Spanish survey expeditions.  The Missions were plotted approximately 30 miles apart along the 600 mile route so that they would be a single day journey by horse.  The El Camino Real name fell into disuse after the Mexican Revolution of 1821 but was revived by American highway promoters in the 1890s and 1900s.  Today the El Camino Real is mostly associated...