PennDOT is holding a “cultural mitigation” meeting for the Skinner Falls Bridge in person and on Zoom on Wednesday, April 30.

The only mitigation the public should demand is a new bridge. For months, we’ve been perfectly capable of honoring it in a multiplicity of ways with music, drama, dance, paintings, photography, poetry and film with no expense to the taxpayer.  People have shared their memories across social media.  PennDOT postures that it hears what we say, but ultimately it will choose how the bridge will be honored in its “cultural mitigation.”

What is needed is a national design ideas competition for a new bridge of architectural distinction that respects the site and the lost bridge’s purpose and history.  The precedent for this competition includes the international design competition for the World Trade Center. Like that competition, it will provide a forum for creative solutions to a need, which in this case is a serviceable bridge, which would also be a national monument to what has been lost: a bridge that was on the National Register of Historic Places in two categories.

The competition will take place in collaboration with federal, state and local government entities including PennDOT,  as well as nonprofit institutions like the Damascus Citizens for Sustainability,  Preservation Pennsylvania and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. There will be an advisory council that will include nationally recognized architects and engineers. The ideas competition will be open to anyone who wants to submit a proposal. There will be an online exhibition of the proposals.  This will be followed by a public exhibition of the competition finalists in a prestigious location. And, as with the World Trade Memorial Competition winner, the next step will be the process of making a vision an actuality.

The night of death did not pass over for Skinners Falls Bridge. But Passover and Easter are part of this season of hope, resurrection and new life. Let the season begin with the beginning of new life for a Skinners Falls Bridge for the 21st century and beyond. 

Cynthia Nash
Milanville, PA