Reading, Pennsylvania has endured a lot over the centuries. Floods. Deindustrialization. The collective trauma of losing Pomeroy’s. But lurking beneath all of that heartbreak is a quiet, persistent question that has haunted Berks County since 1913:
Is it the Penn Street Bridge, or the Penn Street Viaduct?
The answer, like most things in Reading, depends entirely on who you ask — and how long they’re willing to argue about it at the Oakbrook Brewing Company.
The Official Record (Which Nobody Reads)
Let’s start with the facts, since someone has to.
When County Controller D. K. Hoch published his official report in 1914, the title page read — in big, proud, capital letters — “THE PENN STREET VIADUCT.” Not the Penn Street Bridge. Not “that big thing over the river.” The Viaduct. Hoch didn’t stutter. He even italicized it in places, which in 1914 was the typographical equivalent of slamming your fist on the table.
The Reading Times agreed. When the structure was formally dedicated on May 23, 1914, the paper heralded the opening of the new viaduct in language so flowery you’d think they were reviewing a cathedral, not a road over some railroad tracks and the Schuylkill.
So, officially? It’s a viaduct. Case closed.
Except it’s not, because this is Reading.
What Everybody Actually Calls It
Go ahead. Walk into any diner, barbershop, or family reunion in Berks County and say “Penn Street Viaduct.” You will be met with one of three responses:
- A blank stare.
- “You mean the bridge?”
- “Oh, you went to college.”
The people of Reading have been calling it “the bridge” since approximately forever, and no amount of official documentation is going to change that. Wikipedia — the ultimate arbiter of what regular humans actually say — titles its article “Penn Street Bridge” and then sheepishly adds in the first sentence, “also known as the Penn Street Viaduct,” like a kid admitting they have a middle name they don’t use.
PennDOT? They call it the Penn Street Bridge. They also spent $43 million rehabilitating it from 2017 to 2020, so they can call it whatever they want.
But Wait — What Even Is a Viaduct?
Here’s where it gets fun.
A “bridge” crosses one thing — usually water. A “viaduct” crosses multiple things, often a valley or a series of obstacles. When the current structure was completed in 1913, it didn’t just cross the Schuylkill River. Oh no. It also crossed:
- The canal of the Schuylkill Navigation Company
- The Schuylkill division of the Pennsylvania Railroad
- Two branches of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad
That’s a river, a canal, and three sets of railroad tracks. That’s not a bridge. That’s an overachiever. That’s a structure with a LinkedIn profile.
So technically, “viaduct” is the correct engineering term. The 1913 structure was 1,350 feet long, 80 feet wide, and featured five 110-foot elliptical arches rising 24 feet above the water. It carried trolley tracks, boulevard arc lamps, and 26 clusters of tungsten lights on decorative concrete posts. It was, by any measure, a viaduct.
But “bridge” has four letters and doesn’t make you sound like you’re narrating a PBS documentary.
Bridge wins.
A Brief History of Bridge-Related Drama
To fully appreciate this naming kerfuffle, you have to understand that Berks County has been fighting about how to cross the Schuylkill at Penn Street since George Washington was still alive.
1796: The county votes $32,000 to build a stone bridge. The money isn’t enough. They try a lottery. The lottery fails. The whole thing is scrapped. A promising start.
1801: They try again, this time with wood. The county hires a contractor named Obediah Osborn from York County, who builds four stone pillars, spends $30,000, and then — in a move familiar to anyone who’s ever hired a contractor — abandons the project and leaves the state.
1816: A wooden covered bridge is finally completed. It costs $50,000, features carved wooden statues representing “commerce” and “agriculture,” and charges pedestrians one cent to cross. Things are looking up.
First Penn Street Bridge
1850: A 25-foot flood sweeps it away, along with every other bridge over the Schuylkill in Berks County. So much for looking up.
1851: They build another wooden covered bridge. This one is sturdier. It survives a 23-foot flood in 1869 without a scratch. Attaboy.
Second Penn Street Bridge
1884: The Pennsylvania Railroad, concerned that trains running under a wooden bridge might set it on fire (a reasonable worry), tears it down and replaces it with an iron truss bridge. Cost: $120,000. Nobody argues about whether to call it a bridge or a viaduct, because it’s definitely just a bridge.
1909: Workers discover the iron bridge is falling apart. The County Engineer condemns it. Trolley service is suspended. Citizens try to get an injunction to force the county to keep the unsafe bridge open, because — and I cannot stress this enough — this is Reading.
1911–1913: The current concrete viaduct is built, ingeniously constructed in two phases so traffic could keep flowing. The contractor, L. H. Focht & Son, did it for $325,910. The highest bid was $450,000, from someone who clearly thought the county could be talked into it.
Penn Street Bridge Construction
1914: The structure is officially dedicated as “The Penn Street Viaduct.”
Penn Street Viaduct Dedication
1914–present: Literally everyone calls it “the bridge.”
Penn Street Bridge
The Great Rehabilitation and the Name That Would Not Die
When PennDOT undertook the massive $43 million rehabilitation from 2017 to 2020, they painstakingly restored the original 1911 design features using Benjamin Herman Davis’s original drawings. They preserved the ornate concrete railings. They respected the historic integrity. They won a preservation award.
And in all their official communications, they called it… the Penn Street Bridge.
Penn Street Bridge
Not even a courtesy “viaduct” thrown in for old D. K. Hoch, rolling in his grave somewhere in Berks County.
The Historic Bridges website tried to split the difference, listing it as “Penn Street Bridge (Penn Street Viaduct)” — the parenthetical equivalent of mumbling the second part under your breath.
So Who’s Right?
Both. Neither. It doesn’t matter.
If you’re an engineer, a historian, or County Controller D. K. Hoch’s ghost, it’s the Penn Street Viaduct. It crosses multiple obstacles, it’s 1,350 feet of reinforced concrete elegance, and it deserves the dignified title it was given in 1914.
If you’re a normal human being who lives in Berks County and just needs to get from West Reading to Second Street without hitting every red light on Penn, it’s the bridge. It’s always been the bridge. It will always be the bridge.
And honestly? After surviving two centuries of floods, one absconding contractor, a condemned iron predecessor, a $43 million facelift, and 34,000 vehicles a day, this structure has earned the right to be called whatever it wants.
Just don’t call it “that overpass.” That’s how you start a real fight in Reading.
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