Johnstown, Pennsylvania

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Johnstown, PA

Swiss Amish immigrant Joseph Johns (1749-1813, originally named Tschantz or Schantz) settled at the confluence of the Stonycreek and Little Conemaugh rivers in 1794. In 1800 he deeded most of his farm for the formation of the village of Conemaugh, taking the name of of an Indian trading village that had been on the site. In 1807, Johns relocated to a farm nine miles south and passed away six years later, but in 1834 the growing village was legally renamed Johnstown in his honor. (reference)

The remote location of the village and the mountainous terrain limited economic development in the area, despite the abundance of natural resources. To rectify the situation, in 1829 the state began building the Main Line, a series of railroads and canals that connected Pittsburgh in the west with Philadelphia in the east. Johnstown was the point where the 36-mile Allegheny Portage Railroad from Hollidaysburgh met the 103-mile Western Division Canal that extended into Pittsburgh and the town grew to meet the needs of traffic on the Main Line. The canal was only marginally successful and was supplanted by completion of the Pennsylvania Railroad through town in 1852. This lead to the simultaneous opening of the Cambria Iron Company, which supplied the rapidly expanding railroads with iron and used them for transportation of their products.

Johnstown is perhaps best known for its most ignominious moment. On May 31, 1889, a poorly-maintained earthen dam upstream on the Little Conemaugh River burst in heavy rains, sending a 20-million-ton wall of water down the valley towards Johnstown. The 37-foot-high wave hit Johnstown at 4:07 PM, bounced off Yoder Hill, backwashed up the Stonycreek River and demolished almost everything in its path. The debris accumulated against the stone railroad bridge just north of town and caught fire later that evening, burning alive those unfortunates who had been trapped in the rubble.

The final official death toll was 2,209 and many of the bodies were buried unidentified. The relief efforts were lead by Clara Barton in the first major such effort for the American Red Cross. Although reconstruction of the city and surrounding infrastructure took years, the heavily-damaged mill resumed production a few days after the flood and was back to full production within a year and a half.

The burst dam had originally been built to supply water for the Main Line canals but was abandoned when the canal was supplanted by the railroad. It was subsequently purchased by a group of speculators to create the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, a resort for wealthy residents of Pittsburgh who wanted a pastoral escape from the bustle and grime of that growing industrial city. The club opened in 1881 but shoddy repairs and alterations to the dam made it structurally unsound. As would be expected from a Gilded Age court, the dam break was ruled an "Act of God" and the wealthy patrons of the club were not held legally responsible or required to give any compensation to the survivors of the flood.

Johnstown Flood Museum

The Johnstown Public Library building was rebuilt in 1891 by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie following the flood. It functioned as a library until being converted to the Johnstown Flood Museum in 1973, providing the centerpiece of Johnstown's efforts to promote its historic legacy.

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Johnstown Flood Museum

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Johnstown Flood Museum

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Johnstown Flood Museum

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Johnstown Flood Museum

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Johnstown Flood Museum

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Johnstown Flood Museum

Cambria Iron Company

The economic heart of Johnstown was the Cambria Iron Company, which opened in 1852 with the arrival of the Pennsylvania Railroad in Johnstown. In 1857, William Kelley developed a process at Cambria for purifying iron into steel in large quantities, dramatically increasing the usefulness and value of the mill's products. Within a few years, the Johnstown mills and other mills further upstream in the Conemaugh Valley were running continuously to meet the burgeoning demand throughout the country. By 1900, half of the nation's steel was made in Pennsylvania. Bethlehem Steel bought Cambria in 1923.

During World War II, southern and western states began building steel mills, making older plants in Pennsylvania increasingly obsolete and too expensive to upgrade. Diesel locomotives and trucks replaced coal-fueled steam locomotives for transporting the nations goods. This lead to a slow decline of the steel industry in Johnstown, culminating in the closing of the Johnstown mill in 1988 and bankruptcy for Bethlehem Steel. (reference)

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Cambria Iron Company

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Cambria Iron Company

Inclined Plane

After the 1889 flood, the Cambria Iron Company purchased the hilltop just to the west of Johnstown to provide a safer place for their management to live than the flood-prone valley. At the time, Yoder Hill was a farming area, and the company commissioned landscape architect Charles Miller to lay out the suburban residential district that was eventually named Westmont. Because roads to the hilltop were steep and unreliable, the company constructed this inclined plane to transport people and vehicles from Westmont down to the city and factory in Johnstown below. (reference)

The inclined plane is essentially a vertical cable-driven railway running 897 feet down a 71% grade. It was designed by Samuel Diescher (1839-1915) and is similar to other inclined planes built in mountainous western Pennsylvania during the late 19th century. A Pennsylvania Truss bridge at the base of the plane permits passengers and vehicles to cross Stonycreek River. Although probably not envisioned as an escape route, the incline plane is credited with saving 4,000 lives during the great flood of 1936. The plane was condemned during the 1970s, but was rebuilt and rededicated in 1984.

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Upper station of the Inclined Plane

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Observation deck

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Tree-lined street in Westmont

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Johnstown flood historic marker on the observation deck

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Looking down the Inclined Plane tracks

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Looking town the Inclined Plane tracks

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Technical info on the Inclined Plane

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1994 ASME historical marker

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Cable drive for the Inclined Plane

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Vehicle platform and passenger compartment on the Inclined Plane

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Wheel and track closeup

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Looking up the Inclined Plane tracks

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Waiting on the return train up the hill

A 237-foot Pennsylvania Through-Truss bridge sits at the base of the inclined plane, permitting passage across the Stonycreek River.

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Inclined Plane Bridge lower station
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Inclined Plane Bridge looking east into Johnstown
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Looking west across the bridge to the Inclined Plane lower station

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Inclined Plane Bridge viewed from the southeast
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Inclined Plane Bridge viewed from the south

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Vehicle ramp down to Roosevelt Boulevard

Little Conemaugh Railroad Bridge

This Pennsylvania Through Truss rail bridge was built over the Little Conemaugh River in 1906 by the Cambria Steel Company, presumably for the Pennsylvania Railroad (although the Baltimore & Ohio RR also served Johnstown). The line was acquired by Conrail in 1976 when the Penn Central RR went bankrupt and was being used by the Norfolk Southern RR when I visited in 2008.

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Little Conemaugh Railroad Bridge

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Little Conemaugh Railroad Bridge

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Little Conemaugh Railroad Bridge

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Little Conemaugh Railroad Bridge

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Little Conemaugh Railroad Bridge

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Cambria Steel Co, 1906

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Little Conemaugh Railroad Bridge

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Bridge deck

Johnstown Local Flood Protection Project

Following a disastrous flood in 1936, the Army Corps of Engineers undertook a five-year project (1938-1943) to create deep paved channels for the Little Conemaugh and Stonycreek rivers as they pass through Johnstown. While the project was a technical success and the channels were only overtopped once in the massive 1977 flood, the channels transform these lovely mountain streams into unappealing concrete canyons, creating a questionable aesthetic in a town that now attempts to promote itself as a tourist destination.

Note also the orange-brown quality of the water in the Little Conemaugh due to upstream acidic discharges from abandoned mines. While a watershed protection project succeeded in cleaning up similar pollution in the Stonycreek River, a similar effort for the Little Conemaugh faces significant technical and economic hurdles.

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Little Conemaugh River

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Polluted water in the Little Conemaugh

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JLFPP historic marker

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The clear Stonycreek River passing under the Washington Street Bridge

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Washington Street Bridge / Stonycreek River

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Polluted water from the Little Conemaugh flowing into the clear Stonycreek River

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George Washington Memorial Trees (dedicated 1932)

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Conemaugh Valley Flood Memorial (1940)

Johns Street Bridge

This 135-foot vehicle bridge crossing the Little Conemaugh River was built in 2000 and is a replica of the Pratt pony truss bridge that stood here from 1927-1999.

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Johns Street Bridge

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Johns Street Bridge

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Johns Street Bridge

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Johns Street Bridge

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Johns Street Bridge

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Historic marker

Stone Bridge

This seven-arch stone railroad bridge was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1887. It is notable for surviving the 1889 flood, but subsequently forming the base of a dam of debris that accumulated behind it and caught fire on the evening of the flood, incinerating a number of flood survivors trapped in the wreckage.

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Stone Bridge

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NSRR train crossing the bridge

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Pennsylvania RR Stone Bridge Historic Marker

Pennsylvania Railroad Station

Johnstown's Pennsylvania Railroad Station was designed by Kenneth M. Murchison (1872-1938) and opened on October 12, 1916. When I visited in 2008, it was used by Amtrak as a station stop on the Pennsylvanian.

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Railroad station

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Railroad station

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Pennsylvania Railroad Station

Other Scenes around Johnstown

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Old houses on Union Street

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Old houses on Lincoln Street

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Old houses on Lincoln Street

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Central Park

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Central Park

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Art Deco Post Office (1937)

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Art Deco eagle

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Post Office cornerstone

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Szechuan Chinese Restaurant - Union at Main

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Szechuan Chinese Restaurant

North Fork Reservoir

40.270423,-79.005947

This reservoir to the south of Johnstown on the north fork of Bens Creek was built between 1926 and 1932 and is part of Johnstown's municipal water supply. The reservoir has a capacity of 1,206 million gallons when at its peak depth of 100 feet. The area was in a bit of a dry spell, leaving the reservoir extremely low.

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Spillway

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Spillway

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Spillway

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Spillway bridge deck

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Spillway bridge

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Spillway bridge

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Dam

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Dam

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Gate house

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Reservoir sign

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No fishing or swimming

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Reservoir looking south

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Reservoir looking northwest

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Reservoir looking south

PA 985 North Fork Bens Creek Bridge

This simple 55-foot concrete tee beam bridge (NBI 550985033026000) carries State Road 985 (Somerset Pike) over the north fork of Bens Creek downstream (east) of the North Fork Reservoir. It caught my eye because of its streamlined guard rail stanchions. Although the date on the bridge nameplate in 1953, the NBI indicates that the bridge was built in 1922, which might explain its vaguely Art Deco appearance. Alternatively, the stanchions may have been late Art Moderne additions during the renovation. I had a nice chat with a very friendly couple (Steve and Cathy) who were curious why I would be taking a picture of this nondescript bridge next to their house - which was hard to explain.

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Deck view from the southwest

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North guard rail

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Nameplate on south guard rail

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South guard rail

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View from the northeast

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View from the northwest

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Streamline stanchion detail

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Twisted wrought iron balustrades for that 50's look

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North fork, Bens Creek

S.R. 4016 / Bens Creek Bridge

40.230906,-78.9817

This attractive concrete arch bridge in Conemaugh Township was built in 1917 by W.G. Ferner (NBI 554016001000350). It carries S.R. 4016 (Moonlite Park Road) over the South Fork of Bens Creek about halfway between Johnstown and Jennerstown just off Highway 985 (Somerset Pike).