NJ/PA Roads - Warren CR 627/Riegelsville Bridge

Warren CR 627, Riegelsville Bridge


All photos taken westbound.


The only photo that I know is definitively on CR 627, and it's embossed!


I know that the south (left) side of this bridge is Hunterdon CR 627. The NJDOT Straight Line Diagrams suggest that the north side is Warren CR 627, which would make sense, except I already know that Warren CR 645 ends mere feet away from an otherwise continuous Hunterdon CR 645, so why not return the favor here?


Photos from the southwest, Delaware River/Hunterdon side of the bridge.


Back into Warren Co. on the east side of the bridge. Unquestionably a county bridge, so we could say this is in fact CR 627.


Okay, if CR 627 doesn't end at the bridge, why is this sign here? I've been puzzling over that myself, and the best I can come up with is that CR 627 splits just before the bridge.


Another puzzling sign assembly. The obvious connection for a roadgeek is black-on-white distance signs are old. All of these signs do look about the same age, but what gives me pause is that that age doesn't appear to be that old. Regardless of the amount of traffic a road sees, weather should affect the signs equally. So my best guess is that these are either Warren County or DRJTBC signs done to older specs, even though neither of those agencies has any other signs looking like this. I would love to believe that these were erected the last year of this color scheme, but that would be too many years ago to be realistic. (It's possible that there were actual old signs here that looked like this, and were replaced to the exact specs instead of modernized. That would explain the WEIGHT LIMIT 2½ TON instead of TONS.


What I can only imagine is the original tollhouse, at the base of the southern cable anchor. Notice how flimsy the anchor is compared to those of modern bridges - and how skimpy the cables are. That's why the weight limit is so low. I don't know for how long tolls were collected, assuming I fingered the use correctly.


Here's your history lesson: 100 years ago or more, the only right way to build a suspension bridge was with the name Roebling. That's why this 1905 bridge is still open to traffic, even if it can't carry the loads it used to.


You're not reading the bridge plaque wrong, it says 1837. This is from the original covered bridge at the site, which was washed away by the 1903 Pumpkin Flood. One thing I've learned about pumpkin floods (in figuring out this caption) is that they inevitably refer to the number of gourds that were carried by the floodwaters. The piers were repaired and raised for the new bridge to minimize flood risk, and sure enough, it survived the great flood of 1955 that wiped out a couple of other bridges along the Delaware.


This retaining wall dates to no later than 1905. It seems too sturdy to be 1837.


Some views from the northeast corner of the bridge.


Notice that the steel deck dips scarily at the towers. Clearly, the piers have settled, and without completely rebuilding the structure of the bridge, this is what drivers get to cross. As the weight limit dips lower, eventually there will either be a new bridge here or no bridge at all. For now, larger steel plates have been placed across the dips to keep the bridge drivable. That's not really a solution.


One more dip, and we made it!


Welcome to Riegelsville. Please cross the Delaware Canal to claim your prize.

Onto PA 611
Into Warren County, NJ
Into Bucks County, PA
Back to New Jersey Roads
Back to Pennsylvania Roads
Back to Roads