Koppel Bridge was a toll bridge until May 15, 1957
Koppel Bridge. Many local residents remember as youths, turning off their car lights and running the toll booth to avoid the 5 cent toll. May 15, 1957 marks a special day as the last tool was collected to cross the bridge.
Koppel Bridge
According to the book "A Guide to the Old Stone Blast Furnaces in Western Pennsylvania" by Sharp and Thomas. The Homewood Furnace was built in 1858 and was located in Ellwood City, in Park Gate, near the current site of the Copart Auto Salvage Yard. You can read the description of the furnace on Richard Parks' iron furnace website at r2parks.net/Homewood .
I wonder if anyone remembers this furnace being there, or has any photos? Have you heard of this furnace?
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The Koppel Bridge was built and owned by the Harmony Street Car Line. It was constructed largely of wood and the sparks from the trains passsing underneath often set the bridge on fire. This was a tricky fire to combat as the firemen had to hang under the bridge to extinguish it. Sometimes when we were young and didn’t have the money for toll we would walk down a short distance and walk across the very narrow train bridge which was extremly dangerous. The important thing was to not let your folks know you did that.
A rather odd story about the Koppel Bridge. As you can see it bows down in the middle making it appear unsafe. Some time ago Danny Kaye’s famous orchestra was to play at one of Ellwood’s clubs. Upon approaching the bridge Danny looked out the window and what he saw made him ” chicken out” and he refused to cross it. They went through Wampum to get to their destination. I remember the very nice man who I think was of Russsian decent who collected the tolls for almost the entire life of the Bridge. His name was Walter Matetich.
My Great Grandfather, Willard E. Shaner (1853-1935) was a toll taker on this bridge in the late 1920′s. One evening a man pointed a gun at Willard in an attempt to rob him. Willard had a pencil in his hand and tried to push the gun away with it. He got shot. He started walking across the bridge to get to a hospital when my grandfather, Fred Shaner, (who was a policeman!) found him and took him to the hospital.
I can remember commuting to Geneva and going across the old bridge daily between ’57 and ’59. It seems to me the bridge closed down for a time for repair and I had to go down River Rd to 588 and into Beaver Falls and then back up the hill to Geneva. I don’t know what happened to the Koppel students and how they got to Lincoln when the close down happened. Perhaps they took Danny Kaye’s route.