People aren’t heeding a warning that it isn’t safe to walk atop the Great Crossings Bridge at Youghiogheny River Lake.
The 206-year-old bridge is exposed because of the dry spell, and there’s been a steady stream of sightseers who flocked to — and past — the bridge’s Somerset County entrance Monday.
They were ignoring the advice of the Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District, which oversees the lake and the bridge.
The corps announced Friday they decided to post signs at the bridge to warn the public that foot traffic is prohibited on the bridge because of safety concerns.
The corps noted it doesn’t maintain the bridge, which usually is underwater, and can’t guarantee its structural integrity. Officials also advised visitors not to boat or travel under the bridge’s exposed support arches.
Alice Maxwell of Tunnelton, in Preston County, W.Va., acknowledged she was in a restricted area as she posed to have her image taken behind a jersey barrier partially blocking the end of the bridge in Somerset County. The barrier displayed signs reading “Restricted — This Area Closed to the Public” and “Bridge Closed To Foot Traffic.”
“We’re probably never going to see it again, so of course I needed to come,” she said of the bridge’s emergence from the lake.
“Now I can say I did it,” she said of her walk atop the bridge. “It’s awesome. This is part of history.”
Mid-afternoon Monday, very few if any visitors seemed to be concerned by the three signs on the barrier.
The fact that mud was smeared across the signs may have made it easier for visitors to overlook them.
A couple from Washington, Pa., took note of the signs before joining the rest of the crowd in strolling onto the bridge.
“It’s a little bit of civil disobedience,” said Tom Morley of their decision to ignore the warnings.
“The rain just turned off all summer, and this is what you get,” he said of the exposed bridge. “It’s a nice day today; you have to catch it while you can.”
“We came over here to see something that has been here a couple of hundred years and you can’t normally see,” said his companion, Diana McLaughlin.
Despite another posted sign prohibiting the activity, at least one visitor was seen using a metal detector to explore the exposed lake bed. The site had been occupied by the small town of Somerfield before it was inundated in 1943 by the construction of a dam and the creation of the lake — part of a federal flood control program.
It was unclear what consequences visitors might face for violating the Great Crossings site restrictions. Local representatives of the Army Corps, which is a federal organization, couldn’t be reached because of Veterans Day.
Ray Jakomas, a longtime resident of Addison Township, Somerset County, whose home overlooks the Great Crossings site, was on hand to present visitors a display of historic images of the bridge and the vanished town. Jakomas, who said he assists the Army Corps as a volunteer, spread his photos along a ramp that normally is used to launch boats into the lake but now is high and dry — a good hike away from the bridge and the shallow waterway.
Watching the growing interest in the bridge over the past weeks, Jakomas said a recent weekend crowd overtaxed the site Nov. 3, with hundreds of people pressing to get to the landmark.
He noted there were more visitors than the Army Corps parking area could handle, so people began parking along the berm of adjacent Route 40, including on the modern bridge that parallels the 1818 version. Traffic was tied up on Route 40.
“I took 25 minutes to get from one end of the bridge to the other end,” Jakomas said of the modern highway. “There were so many people here it was unbelievable.
“Four (officials) from Pittsburgh were here, and that (Great Crossings) bridge was full of people, so they said no one is allowed on the bridge. They put signs down there, and somebody came and covered them with mud.”
On Monday, Greensburg residents Joe and Joyce Liptak arrived at the bridge site aware of the new Army Corps restrictions.
Joe Liptak said his wife “won’t go across it because she read someplace that they won’t let anybody on it.”
But, he said, “I would go on it. It wouldn’t bother me.”
Gail Cramer of Donegal visited the bridge when it previously was exposed several decades ago. She convinced her friend Brenda Roberts of Jennerstown to join her on a trip to the site Monday.
“I said, ‘You’ve got to see it. It’s going to be once in a lifetime,’” Cramer said.
“I’m so glad we came down,” said Roberts. “I’ve boated here, and I never imagined this bridge was under us.”
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To make their trip complete, they walked atop the bridge — signs or no signs.
They heard another bridge enthusiast suggest the warning signs might have been deliberately smeared with mud.
“This guy said he’s happy they did that because people should be able to enjoy the bridge,” Roberts said.