SKINNERS FALLS, NY and MILANVILLE, PA — The Skinners Falls Bridge went out with a bang, not a whimper, with the bridge's New York span falling with a 'thud' onto a bed of crushed stone. It was a muted, quiet sound, just loud enough to make you look up and take notice. 

After decades of the bridge's decay, years of deliberations between whether to repair or replace it, months of planning for its demolition and weeks of last-ditch attempts at its salvation—the final blow came as something of an anticlimax, swift and unannounced. 

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) has been working to demolish the historic Skinners Falls Bridge due to concerns about the bridge's deteriorating condition and the risks to public safety from an uncontrolled collapse. 

The morning of Thursday, April 17, PennDOT brought down the New York span of the bridge, dropping it onto a causeway of stone and rubble built out into the Delaware River and sending in excavators to clear away the bridge's twisted metal remains. 

"It's so fragile looking now," said Milanville resident Linda Dexter, looking across the river from the Pennsylvania side at its splintered remains. 

Jeff Dexter, her husband, had similar thoughts. 

"It went down quite easily, I thought," Jeff said, adding that once it came down, "it looked just so flimsy."

The final chapter

The demolition of the New York span comes just over 24 hours after a district court judge gave PennDOT the green light to go ahead with the bridge's destruction. 

Local non-profit Damascus Citizens for Sustainability and Milanville resident Cynthia Nash sued PennDOT and its partners in district court, seeking an injunction that would stop work on the bridge. 

Following a hearing held Friday, April 11, Judge Karoline Mehalchick made a ruling Tuesday, April 15 rejecting the request for an injunction, siding with PennDOT in its evaluation that the bridge was in imminent danger of collapse. 

Jeff Dexter, who attended the hearing together with the plaintiffs, said the hearing revealed new information about the bridge's condition that he hadn't heard before—the bridge had a lot more weaknesses than had previously been explained, he said. 

However, with the lead-up to the bridge's destruction, "You've had time to make this realization, what was going to happen," Jeff said. 

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DCS shared a statement following the takedown reading, in part, "Today, April 17, 2025, PennDOT finally gets what it clearly sought for more than a decade: the death of Skinners Falls Bridge. It won’t be long before a structure that has spanned the Delaware River since 1902 will be gone. It could have been restored; soon it will be scrap."

"The denial of the injunction halting demolition of Skinners Falls Bridge by federal court does not negate the validity of the valiant advocacy by Damascus Citizens for Sustainability and countless people in our region and beyond who crusaded for years for the preservation of this historic and restorable landmark against the destructive power of PennDOT," wrote DCS.

In the evening of Wednesday, April 16, PennDOT announced that it would begin demolition of the bridge the following morning. "Structure removal will begin the morning of Thursday, April 17, 2025, by mechanical means starting on the New York side of the bridge," according to PennDOT. 

Rick Lander, who owns the property neighboring to the Skinners Falls Bridge, told the River Reporter he was only informed of the demolition fifteen minutes before it happened. 

PennDOT didn't need to use explosives to take down the bridge, but were able to drop it using an excavator, Lander said. He had heard PennDOT planned to take down the remaining span of the bridge on Monday, April 21. 

Next steps

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has an end-of-May deadline to complete the entire project, including clearing away its equipment and materials and restoring the pre-existing New York State Department of Environmental Conservation access point. 

At the same time, discussions continue on how to mitigate the harm to the area's historic values caused by the bridge's destruction. 

PennDOT will hold a hybrid meeting from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on April 30, at the Tusten Town Hall and online via Zoom. Click here for more information.