The Patterson Viaduct was built by the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

(B&O) as part of its Old Main Line during May to December 1829. The viaduct spanned the

Patapsco River The Patapsco River mainstem is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 river in central Maryland that flows into the Chesapeake Bay. The river's tidal port ...

at Ilchester, Maryland. It was heavily damaged by a

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

in 1866 and subsequently replaced with other structures.

History and design

Original bridge

The viaduct was constructed during the first building phase of the

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

, which extended from

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, to

Ellicott's Mills Ellicott City is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in, and the county seat of, Howard County, Maryland, United States. Part of the Baltimore metropolitan area, its population was 65,834 at the 2010 census, making it the mo ...

(today's Ellicott City). The Patterson span at

Ilchester Ilchester is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish, situated on the River Yeo (South Somerset), River Yeo or Ivel, five miles north of Yeovil, in the England, English county of Somerset. Originally a Roman Britain, Roman town, and ...

, the third initial stone bridge built for the B&O, was similar in construction to the company's first bridge, the nearby Carrollton Viaduct further east spanning the

Gwynns Falls Gwynns Falls is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011. stream located in Baltimore County and Baltimore City, Maryland. Its headwaters are located in Reisterst ...

and was named for B&O director and well known civic leader and merchant William Patterson who also donated land for

Patterson Park Patterson Park is an urban park in Southeast Baltimore, Maryland, United States, adjacent to the neighborhoods of Canton, Highlandtown, Patterson Park, and Butchers Hill. It is bordered by East Baltimore Street, Eastern Avenue, South Patt ...

in east Baltimore. It was designed by Caspar Wever and built under the supervision of John McCartney, one of Wever's assistants. McCartney's good work on the Patterson Viaduct was later rewarded with the contract to build the longer curving 1833-35

Thomas Viaduct The Thomas Viaduct spans the Patapsco River and Patapsco Valley between Relay, Maryland and Elkridge, Maryland, USA. It was commissioned by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O); built between July 4, 1833, and July 4, 1835; and named for Philip ...

downstream over the upper

Relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated swit ...

. The other span of the first four historic stone and masonry bridges on the B. & O. line was the Oliver Viaduct, also built over the upper Patapsco at Ellicott Mills and adjacent Washington Road. The bridge was constructed of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies und ...

blocks and was about long, rising about above its foundations. It had four graduated arches: two of

chord Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord ( ...

length each and two of chord length each. The two smaller side arches allowed the passage of two county roadways, one on each side of the river. The exterior surfaces of the granite blocks were undressed, or rusticated. Patterson ceremonially opened the viaduct on December 4, 1829, a year and a half after the First Stone was laid beginning construction on the line, the first in America. In 1830, The viaduct was part of the route used by the B&O's first horse-drawn carriage train to Ellicott's Mills inaugurating railway traffic.

Second bridge

The viaduct was almost totally destroyed in a major massive 1868 flood which devastated and wiped out most of the numerous stone mills and industrial structures lining the river. A single-span Bollman Truss of cast and wrought iron by Wendel Bollman was built into the west

abutment An abutment is the substructure at the ends of a bridge span or dam supporting its superstructure. Single-span bridges have abutments at each end which provide vertical and lateral support for the span, as well as acting as retaining wall ...

in 1869 incorporated the original roadway arch and upstream wing wall. The Bollman design was supplanted by another bridge before the railroad was realigned a little ways upstream in 1902–03 with the opening of the Ilchester Tunnel. According to local folklore, Ilchester Tunnel is haunted by Peeping Tom. The Patterson Viaduct Ruins were listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

on June 3, 1976.

Third bridge

Today, all that remains at the original Patterson Viaduct is the single masonry roadway side arch of the 1829 construction on the west bank of the Patapsco and the stone abutment on the east bank, just south of the present railroad bridge. In 2006, a cable-stayed footbridge carrying the Grist Mill Trail, with a design that echoes the historic architecture and engineering of a Bollman Bridge, was added atop the abutments.

References

External links