The bridge that locals called the old Birdsboro Bridge was the 1927 concrete span that carried Pennsylvania Route 345 over the Schuylkill River and the Norfolk Southern tracks, between the borough of Birdsboro and Exeter Township. Baumstown is the small place on the north side of the river, at the junction of U.S. 422 and Route 345. The bridge is the link between them. Unlike the other spans in this series, there is no named ghost story attached to it in the published record.
Birdsboro sits on the south bank of the Schuylkill, about nine miles below Reading. William Bird took up land along Hay Creek where it meets the river as early as 1737 and built a forge there around 1740. By his death in 1761 or 1762 he held thousands of acres, three forges, a gristmill, and a sawmill. His son Mark Bird enlarged the works and, during the Revolutionary War, was one of the largest iron producers in America. The Brooke family bought the property in 1796. The borough was incorporated in 1872. The old mansion William Bird built in 1751 is still standing. It is now called Bird Mansion and hosts history and ghost tours. That is the local haunted site. The bridge is not.
The 1927 bridge was a 19-span concrete arch, 1,123 feet long and about 39 feet wide, built by Whitaker and Diehl of Harrisburg with Charles F. Sanders. It carried Route 345, also called Center Road or Furnace Street, across the river and the railroad. By the 2010s it was rated structurally deficient and posted at 15 tons. PennDOT began replacing it in August 2012. On August 14, 2014, traffic shifted to two new bridges, one over the river and one over the tracks. The old span was demolished. The project cost about $14.5 million. J.D. Eckman of Atglen was the contractor.
There is a second set of old bridges south of town. In September 1987, heavy rain from the remnants of a tropical depression flooded Hay Creek and washed out three bridges on Route 82 between Rock Hollow Road and Douglas Street. After years of argument, the state decided not to rebuild the upstream spans. The old road is now a trail through the Birdsboro Waters Preserve and Hopewell Big Woods. That is the abandoned Route 82 that hikers and cyclists use. It is not the river bridge.
Searches of haunt listings, local history, and Berks County ghost roundups turn up no named apparition, no hanging, no crybaby story, and no anniversary legend for either crossing. The haunted places near Baumstown and Birdsboro are buildings: the Yellow House Hotel in Douglassville, where a woman is said to have died by suicide; Brinton Lodge, with a Lady in White and a figure called Dapper Dan; Ridgewood Winery in Birdsboro; and Bird Mansion itself. None of those stories is tied to the river bridge in the sources below.
What is documented is a 1927 concrete arch that stood for 87 years, a 2014 replacement, and a set of Route 82 bridges that the 1987 flood ended.
The stories from eyewitness say the ghost of a woman wearing a veil has appeared to drivers as they approach the bridge. Buggy riders would see her encouraging them to cross the bridge. Several witnesses reported she spoke to them about the reality of life after death. The bridge has now been torn down, but people say she is still there, enticing people to join her on the other side of the nonexistent bridge…
Relevant links
- Reading Eagle: Birdsboro and Exeter bridges open, 2014 — the 1927 span, the 15-ton posting, the new bridges
- The Mercury: new Route 345 bridges — the demolition of the old bridge
- Borough of Birdsboro: history — William Bird, the forge, the 1872 incorporation
- HistoricBridges.org: Birdsboro Bridge — the 1927 concrete arch details