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4 unusual facts about Girard Avenue Bridge


Girard Avenue Bridge

The Philadelphia Zoo occupies the southwest corner, and the Mantua Junction Viaduct crosses over Lansdowne Drive and West Girard Avenue, then curves around the zoo.

It connects the east and west sections of Fairmount Park, and the Brewerytown neighborhood with the Philadelphia Zoo.

Rudolph Hering is credited with the design; it was constructed by Adolphus Bonzano, and cost $267,000.

Max Schmitt in a Single Scull

The course was 3 miles long: beginning near Turtle Rock (Turtle Rock Light is the lighthouse at the northwest end of Boathouse Row), proceeding upriver under the Girard Avenue and Pennsylvania Railroad Connecting Bridges to a stake near the Columbia Railroad Bridge, making a 180-degree turn around the stake, and then heading downriver back to the starting line.


SEPTA Route 15

The Richmond and Schuylkill River Passenger Railway was chartered by the Pennsylvania General Assembly on March 26, 1859 to operate along Girard Avenue between the Girard Avenue Bridge over the Schuylkill River in Fairmount Park and Norris Street in Richmond, with an extension authorized west over the bridge to Lancaster Avenue.

After crossing over the Paoli/Thorndale Line at the intersection with Belmont Avenue, the line passes by the Philadelphia Zoo near Exit 342 on the Schuylkill Expressway before crossing the Schuylkill River over the Girard Avenue Bridge.


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