On Constitution drive in allentown pa there are bridge supports to cross the river to the east side. There was a bridge ,year constructed ??? but it is there in arial photos from the 1930's in to the 1950" it seems to come from a LVR yard or burn yard to below the allentown town bump yard to intersect with the rail bridge that crosses klines island then on to the old lvrr station site on lower hamilton st. Does any one have information on this structure wether it was ( covered ,rail &wagon shared, rail , trolley , or just auto ) I havent found it on maps of the period but it dissapered before 1960. any information would be helpfull

Interesting. It shows clearly on this 1957 topo map:
http://historical.mytopo.com/getImage.a ... g&state=PA

It appears to be a spur which comes off the Reading between the east end of the Lehigh River bridge and the canal, and then curves south, crosses the river again, and then crosses the LV main line on the south bank and quickly terminates. Strange.

Just a WAG, but I wonder if the LV might have had a mainline coaling station where this spur crosses? [edit -- I guess not . . . Greenberg and Fischer don't mention anything like this in their LV East of Mauch Chunk book.]

Are the aerial photos you mention available online? The Historic Aerials website only has 2005 images of Allentown. I wasn't able to make out any bridge piers in the current Mapquest satellite photo.

Try the penn pilot photo center
http://www.pennpilot.psu.edu/

If I may interject here, I recall hearing about an iron furnace that was served by the CNJ on the south side of the river, via a bridge crossing the river at that point.

Realize that at the point where it branches off the 'main', that was the Allentown Terminal Railroad, and for local service, was a CNJ operation.

-Micah

This might help.

Location was known as East Penn Junction.

Looking at Mr. Boonstra's map, and a CNJ valuation map I've got, it looks to be the Aineyville Branch..

Again, I believe this served one of the many small-time (compared to Bethlehem Steel, for example) independent iron furnaces that dotted the valley until the early 20th century.

-Micah

MJK,

Good call, sounds like Aineyville to me. See brief history here:

http://articles.mcall.com/2002-07-17/news/3423911_1_lehigh-river-lehigh-iron-iron-industry

The might of Bethlehem Steel in the 1900's belies the fact that the Lehigh River valley was dotted with small iron companies. Really neat stuff.

Rob