LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY – Driving across the Delaware River between Skinners Falls, NY and Milanville, PA requires the ability to keep all four tires firmly planted on a series of parallel two-by-four planks mounted atop the single-lane deck of a 217-year-old bridge that has been damaged at various times by ice jams and floodwaters.

Built in 1901 by the American Bridge Company, the Skinners Falls Bridge replaced a private ferry service run by the Daniel Skinner family. Another member of the Skinner family, Milton L. Skinner, formed the Milanville Bridge Company with a dual purpose in mind: to raise money for construction of the bridge through sale of stock shares and to oversee its subsequent maintenance and operation.

Hardly had construction begun when an ice flood raised the river to the second-story level of Milanville homes. Construction was delayed, in part because of flood-level water, but also due to opposition from local residents and the owners of both the Narrowsburg-Darbytown Bridge and the Cochecton-Damascus Bridge, who objected to competition from another bridge just three miles from both.

Although the Cochecton Bridge Company fought construction of the Skinners Falls Bridge all the way to the New York State capital, it was eventually approved because, as a one-lane bridge, it was not considered a significant threat to the two other two-lane bridges.

Construction cost for the bridge was $14,000. The crossing toll was 22 cents for horse-drawn conveyances, free to foot traffic and clergymen. That is, until one clergyman abused his privilege and was thereafter charged five cents per crossing.

Two years after opening, a spring flood seriously weakened the structure, but a $7,000 repair of the bridge by the Horseheads Bridge Company paved the way for a business boom on both sides of the Delaware that included an acid company, creamery and a dairy company, all of which kept the new bridge in operation—with business traffic accounting for the bulk of toll collection.

In 1922, the bridge was bought from its owners for $19,542.22 by a PA state commission. Bridge activity increased and area businesses flourished following the abolition of tolls. The bridge survived major hurricanes and other weather-related events through the 1970s, undergoing a major renovation from May to October 1986. Although the wooden deck was replaced, the entire bridge was repainted and new guide rails were erected, the three-ton weight limit remained.

On November 14, 1988, the Skinners Falls Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

In 2010, the start of a series of closures necessitated by structural defects deemed safety risks to both bridge and river traffic. A $200,000 rehabilitation of truss members was planned for 2010 and an $8,000,000 rehabilitation for 2015, but a 2015 inspection revealed another structural integrity problem: the bridge’s suspension wires were twisted and out of alignment. Despite a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) warning that the bridge could be closed indefinitely, it was reopened to traffic in November of 2016. Closed again in early 2018 for repair of a damaged central pier, the bridge reopened in November of the same year.

But cracks in the NY side abutment, damaged deck boards and two ineffective sway bracing members discovered in May of 2019 gave rise to the inevitable question: rehabilitation or rebuilding? The answer came this month. The Skinners Falls Bridge will once again be rehabilitated so that one-way traffic can pass one car at a time at 15 mph between Skinners Falls and Milanville.

The bridge will be closed weekedays until October 23.