1954: The Dedication of a Bridge Between a New York Hamlet and a Pennsylvania Village

August 31, 1954

Dedication ceremonies were held for an arch bridge crossing the Delaware River between the hamlet of Narrowsburg in Sullivan County, New York; and the village of Darbytown (within the township of Damascus) in Wayne County, Pennsylvania. Construction on this bridge began on April 16, 1953.

Approximately 200 people showed up for the inaugural festivities for the Interstate Bridge (now called the Narrowsburg-Darbytown Bridge). The next day’s edition of the Scranton-based Tribune reported, “The brief ceremonies began with an informal march to the center of the bridge by Pennsylvania and New York state officials, representatives of the two state highway departments and members of the Honesdale and Narrowsburg Chambers of Commerce.” (The borough of Honesdale is the county seat of Wayne County.)  

The formal opening of the bridge took place when a ribbon stretched out there was jointly cut by Carl W. Behling, president of the Narrowsburg Chamber of Commerce; and Leslie Walters, president of the Honesdale Chamber of Commerce. Clarence E. Bodie, a Honesdale resident who served as a Wayne County judge from 1941 to 1966, was the program chairman for that Tuesday afternoon’s dedication ceremonies.

A little over a week later, an article in the Tribune cited the bridge while focusing on people who drive through the region. This article noted, “In an especial way they will be interested in the opening of the new bridge between Darbytown and Narrowsburg.”

The Tribune also spelled out the differences between this bridge and the one that it had replaced. “The old bridge with its poor alignment and inadequate width made a hazardous bottleneck and is being dismantled,” reported this newspaper. “The new construction has provided a modern structure with sufficient width for traffic and excellent approaches.”

Measuring 425.9 feet (129.8 meters) in length, the Narrowsburg-Darbytown Bridge carries both New York State Route 52 and Pennsylvania Route 652 across the Delaware River. The accompanying wintertime photo of this bridge was taken in 2011.

Photo Credit: Kelly Dean, kellydeanandcompany.com (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en)

For more information on the Narrowsburg-Darbytown Bridge, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrowsburg%E2%80%93Darbytown_Bridge