Saturday, November 1, 2008

NJ: "Ride to Carpentersville via Riegelsville"
















Saturday, November 1st: With temperatures having warmed up, and no snow in the lower elevations, our "Ride to Carpentersville" was on.



The truth of the matter is that there isn't much to see in Carpentersville, NJ, but it's an interesting place to pass through. You don't pass through by accident, you must plan your route there as it's off the beaten track. But, getting there is the fun. Some history: Carpentersville is named from Jacob Carpenter, who came from Switzerland in 1748. His two sons, Jacob and John, passed their lives in this vicinity. Jacob left two sons, Jacob and Charles, and John two sons named Isaac and William. The Carpenter family is inter-married with the Kennedy, Stewarts and other' prominent families of this and adjoining townships. Carpentersville is a station on the Pennsylvania railroad, which reached this point in 1854. Roper's Feiry was operated here as early as 1769.



Fourteen intrepid explorers started from Bloomsbury on an overcast day. From there we climbed via Staats Road (a lot of groaning and moaning), and wound our way to Milford via Little York. From Milford we headed north on River Road along the Delaware River, stopping in Riegelsville at the suspension bridge designed and constructed in 1904 by John A. Roebling Sons of New York, whose most famous work is the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. We then continued on to Carpentersville. In Carpentersville we briefly marveled at the high water mark of the flood of 1955 before continuing to Bloomsbury via Oberly Road.



A fun ride with friends....
Photos: riders at the Riegelsville Roebling bridge, the bridge, the Delaware River which separates New Jersey and Pennsylvania, passing through farm land, a cottage in Carpenterville with a high water mark of the flood of 1955 (you can see the Delaware River in the background about 35 feet below), everyone had a good time, spectacular foliage, tunnels



Additional facts about the Roebling Bridge:
-the Riegelsville Roebling Bridge is one of the few suspension bridges still in existence, if not the only one, with continuous cables. These cables of America’s first “wire rope” were developed by John Roebling on crude equipment in the meadow behind his Saxonburg, Pa., farm. Roebling’s wire rope was first sold in 1841, and later he applied it in suspension bridge designs.
-was erected at a cost of $30,767. Spanning the Delaware River at 577 feet long and 16 feet wide, it has withstood various floods over the past century, including the raging waters of the 1955 flood caused by Hurricane Diane.
-additional photos and facts: http://www.pennridge.org/works/riegelsville.html

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