The Thomas Covered Bridge is the only covered bridge in Indiana County that remains open to traffic. These scenes depict the construction of the new bridge in 1998. The 1998 construction resulted in a modern covered bridge that has a weight capacity of 20 tons. The first covered bridge here had deteriorated and would no longer serve modern traffic. The bridge has also been known as the Thomas Ford Bridge; prior to construction of the bridge there was a crossing, or fording, in Crooked Creek at this location. The original bridge, built in 1879 cost $545 - the new bridge and new abutments cost about $1 million to build.
You might think that at a park like Blue Spruce Park, which has been in existence for nearly 50 years, that every species of plant or animal has already been documented. Not true. Just recently we discovered that a population of Seal Salamanders resides in the park. Probably not a large population due to the limited habitat area where they were found but they are here nonetheless, No previous record of Seal Salamanders existed for the park until they were recently discovered. Seal Salamanders are a Species of Concern in PA so we were glad to know they are here and future management of the park will account for their presence. It will be important to protect the ravine area where they reside if we want to keep a viable population here in the future.
One of our favorite early park photos, this scene looks like it could have been taken in the 1800s but it actually dates from the mid-1960s when Pine Ridge Park was first being developed. Most brush clearing work back then was done by hand before the invention of gasoline powered weed eaters. We don't know the names of these workers but they are some of many that worked in our park system over the last, nearly five decades, since the first Indiana County parks were established, We still have some of the scythes pictured in the photo and sometimes we like to have our younger workers try them out, just to get a feel for how it was in the good old days.
