The Pig City Bridge at Rippleton

This photo was submitted by John Barbano

Is that the Pig City bridge ?????

-patrick- (Kennedy) 3-18-05

Hey there bb....Now, where did you ever get that photo?  I think it is the
"Pig City Bridge"....photo taken from Rt 13 looking down on Rippleton Creek
and Rippleton Cross Road.  I imagine it must have been taken in the 40s or
early 50s.  Seems to me I remember my dad had some photos of similar views
of the bridge.  BB  (Cathy Barbano) 3-18-05


Rippleton Crossroads bridge by Cathy Barbano's house 
Roger Cook 3-18-05

I remember this scene from the movie "Deliverance" which I saw in December of 1972 just before I was drafted in the US Army and was stationed in Ft. Stewart Georgia....I can still hear the echo of the battle of the guitars in the my head.....(remember that weird kid with the ears?).

NO Seriously. I have no clue!!!

Ed Theobald 3-18-05

Stone Quarry rd and hardscrabble rd corners caz
Ron Bushneck 3-20-05

On the mystery photo, it’s gotta be Pig City – Rippleton crossroads and Rippleton Creek – parties at Barbano’s, and just up the road on the corner of Route 13, Stan the Man Thompson’s house. Sally Webster 3-20-05

I remember playing about the remains of the cider mill in the early 1960’s, and Hattie’s House stood long into the sixties. I remember kindly Grandpa Barbano who tended a vegetable garden by his house. The limestone bock and concrete trestle in the background was built in 1906. The trestle was an engineered structure, and the bed of the abandoned railroad crossed some forty feet above Rippleton Creek.

The Rippleton Cross Road Bridge had a steel plague on it that said the bridge was built in 1936. The creek’s main current rebounded off the riprap and approached the bridge at an oblique angle. Because of the upstream mill race and the flat approach of the main channel the bridge often formed an ice jam that would dam and backup spring runoff.

The first big tree left of the bridge just above the riprap is a smaller-size American Elm. Off the photo to the left were three giant elms and across Rippleton Cross Road would have been a fourth giant. All succumbed to the Dutch Elm Disease although the fourth and biggest elm standing alone in a cow pasture lasted the longest and fell in sections over the years. The shadow in the foreground is from a tall yellow pine rooted behind the photographer. Standing on this ridge above the creek the pine was a natural lightning rod that showed trunk-long scars from at least one lightning strike.

I have many happy and rich memories concerning my neighbors the Barbano family, the trestle, the bridge, the creek and this land.

Paul Thompson 3-25-05
253-770-9652
pdthmpsn@comcast.net

The attached picture was taken from Stan Thompson's lawn looking at the Pig City Bridge (Rippleton Cross Road Bridge on Rippleton Cross Road between the Thompson and Barbano properties. The house that has no windows is an old mill I believe (not sure if it was a GRIS mill, but I recall it could have been a cider mill. This was taken down in the early 60's.. the house next to it came down in the 60's as well.. I can only remember it was "Hattie's house" which could have been Lorenzo's Nile's mother perhaps? The roof that can be just seen on the right center edge was my grandfather's house, ours was next to his.

Dave (Barbano): I am sure you know more of the two houses in the pictures if you can lets us know...

Thanks.. John Barbano

This photo is a bit older than the class of 70. It is a great photo!! I have only seen one other of the old mill. It seem like it was take from the flat area where Piggy Baker's house was (right side of the road across from where Deer Hill Road came into 13).

The photo is much earler than you think. I would guess that it was taken when the bridge was new. I think the bridge was finished in the early 30's.   The bridge seems to be the focus of the picture. The rip/rap looks brand new. Even when I was young, most of that was washed out.

The big building is old cider mill. It was already gone when I was a kid (early '50's). All I remember is old scraps of wood and metal in a pile in the pasture where the mill was.   I remember dad talking about it and saying that was all that was left of the old cider mill. The mill must have taken all the apples from Button's orchard and the orchards that went up by Jimmy Hubbards place, etc. Look at how clear the land is. No trees. Dad always talked about how much things had grown up and that you did not have a clear view anymore. I have some of dad's old pictures that are like that. This one is about as clear as I have seen. I remember dad saying that the land between Grandpa Barbano's and the creek was farmed. You can see the leg of water coming in at the right side of the bridge. That was a channel that was a mill race for another mill that was just down stream from our old swimming hole. I remember that remains of the stone foundation was still in the wooded area.

The building on the same side of the road as the mill, across from Grandpa Barbano's house was the house of Hattie Dowd. She was Herbie Dowd's mother. I don't think Herbie had much to do with them. When I was young, I remember them coming to the house on weekends in the summer to party. I think they might have been a bit of a rowdy bunch.

You can see clearly the railroad bed in the background that went by the milk station to pick up milk (out of the photo to the left) and then you can see the big stone tressel in background. I think this line was part of railroad line that took milk to New York City.   That railroad came to the intersection of Rippleton Cross Road and Lane Road and crossed the tracks of the Leighigh valley line that was still active when I was kid. When you turned right from Rippleton Cross Road onto Lane Road, there was a railroad station there on the right which I think was a transfer station between the two different railroads. Grandpa Barbano was on the crew that built the railroad tressel.

I guess, that is what I see in this great old picture. Thanks for sharing it. Brings back a lot of old memories. Who has the photo?

Dave Barbano