The beautiful Skinners Falls Bridge tells us about her long life connecting NY and PA, her relationship with historic Milanville, PA and her hopes for the future (as transcribed by Colleen Rizzo).

April 10, 2021
Hello!

I am the Skinners Falls Bridge and I am proud to tell you that I am almost 120 years old (next year). I was up for the task of transporting vehicles and their occupants then, and I am up to the task now. Give me some healthy rehab (paint, abutment repair) and I promise not to disappoint!

I am, as always, your friend on the Delaware River. 120 years and going strong!
The Skinners Falls Bridge

April 11, 2021
Hello, it’s the Skinners Falls Bridge once again.

I forgot to tell you a few more things about me. Besides ferrying vehicles and their occupants for nearly 120 (!) years, I have hosted huge amounts of foot traffic and livestock transport.

I want you to know how very connected our New York and PA communities are because of me. The New York side of my connection contains a large parking lot and grassy parking down to the river banks and the rocks of the Falls. The fire engines that may need to access the parking lots during an emergency are trending toward paramedic engines that can provide Basic Lifesaving services. I will tell you about my PA connection in more detail with another comment.

In the past, an ambulance has been able to traverse the bridge (please fix me soon, as Summer is both big travel and sadly, recreational accident season). We have emergency services in nearby towns on both sides of the bridge. For years they have functioned well in emergency situations. Building a BIG bridge when our roads aren’t BIG would create unnecessary road accidents. The required SLOW speed for a BIG vehicle to drive safely would create glut and inefficiency.

Anyhow, I am just “weighing in” on the topic of fixing and continuing to maintain me to do the job I was assigned to do oh so long ago.

Your friend on the Delaware River.
The Skinners Falls Bridge

April 13, 2021
Hello again from The Skinners Falls Bridge!

I hope it’s shaping up to be a good week. I promised that I would write about the PA side of the Skinners Falls Bridge. It has been hard on the local economy to have had the bridge open and then closed, again and again.

If you haven’t ever been in the Milanville General Store, you must go! Rocky and Vanessa and their sons are the 2nd generation family named DeGori to operate the store. It’s been the “warming station” for children awaiting the schoolbus at the store’s doorstep. (Children have been allowed to come in and wait for the bus to stop during inclement weather).

Vanessa DeGori has been an organizer for numerous local social causes and individuals. The family and Rocky’s parents have contributed delicious offerings in their store, and the USPS Milanville Post Office is sited within the building housing the store, as are the gas pumps next to the building. Across from the Milanville General Store is a beautifully repurposed home that now houses one of the National Park Service offices.

Down the River Road a piece is the oldest house in Wayne County, PA, circa 1796. The Land House, as it is referred to, has been my dear friend since I can remember, as are many other structures (Nathaniel Skinner House, 1815, the Milanville Methodist Church, 1910) in a walking tour of “downtown” Milanville. 17 local structures helped us become a national Historic District (National Registry of Historic Places) in 1993. There’s a charming schoolhouse on a hill above the store, where one local kid whispered to me that he enjoyed, not his walk to school or catching the schoolbus, but riding his donkey to school as recently as in the 1950s-early 60s!). So many of the Milanville homes are turn-of-the-century dwellings, and I know them all by the stories I have heard of their inhabitants.

I hope to soon be once again able to be a part of my community and shuttle summer canoeists, kayakers, tubing and biking enthusiasts, fishermen and women, leisurely walkers, camping folks from the Skinners Falls and surrounding campgrounds, hikers, swimmers, sightseers, bird-watchers, star gazers…you get the picture. My scenic peace can continue to keep our local economy bustling. All I need, as I’ve gently nudged before, is to be restored and maintained. Great returns promised on funding me!

See you on the River!
Your friend on the Delaware,
The Skinners Falls Bridge