Abstract
The stately Conemaugh Viaduct was an historic “jewel” of the Portage Railroad. The destruction of this massive stone bridge exemplifies the power of dam breach floods, foretelling the calamity that was about to descend on the villages and boroughs downriver. Collapse of the viaduct released a surge of floodwater with a peak discharge rate of ~7090 to 8060 m3 s−1. A remnant of the viaduct still survives and reveals how it was built. Also, an important record comes down to us from an engineer who visited the site immediately after the flood, and before the Pennsylvania Railroad erected a temporary wooden trestle to carry the rail traffic. A new masonry viaduct was completed in the last half of 1889.
“The latent power of a serpent lies in its coils.”
— Neil Coleman
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Notes
- 1.
The Loyalhanna is a distinctly cross-bedded limestone of Mississippian age, >323 million years.
- 2.
It is unfortunate that the viaduct did not survive as a monument to Durno’s skill. He later died after falling from another high bridge.
- 3.
Many buildings in South Fork were spared because they were built on a hillslope higher than the flood wave could reach.
References
Eng. News (1889) “The work of the flood at Johnstown,” Engineering News, Jun 22 1889 p 570
Leonard JW (1907) Who’s who in New York city and state, LR Hamersly & Co, NY, p 223
Roberts SW (1878) Reminiscences of the first railroad over the Allegheny Mountain. In: Pennsylvania magazine of history and biography, vol 2. The Historical Society of PA, Philadelphia, pp 370–393
Snyder A, Vandivort T, Wakefield AE (1889) Map of the valleys of the south fork and [little] Conemaugh rivers, showing the path of the great wave from its origin in the western reservoir to and beyond the stone bridge at Johnstown, Cambria County, PA
Walder JS, O’Connor JE (1997) Methods for predicting peak discharge of floods caused by failure of natural and constructed earthen dams. Water Resour Res 33(10):2337–2348
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Coleman, N.M. (2019). The Viaduct. In: Johnstown’s Flood of 1889. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95216-1_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95216-1_6
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