Remember When: Proposed bridge in 1960s would have linked Freeport and Gilpin

With the recent news that Freeport Borough and Gilpin Township are looking to consolidate their police departments, geography becomes an issue.

But what if the original plans to build a bridge between the two municipalities would have come about?

There were plans in the early 1960s to build a bridge connecting the Dock Hollow portion of South Buffalo Township — just north of the Freeport Borough line — to the Schenley section of Gilpin across the Allegheny River near its confluence with the Kiskiminetas River.

The late State Sen. Albert Pechan, R-Ford City, sponsored a measure in Harrisburg. The measure was approved, but it didn’t include funding for the proposed span.

Had that come about, there would have been easy access between the two municipalities.

Now, an exploratory committee has looked at officers staying in their respective communities except for the overnight shift.

Officers then would split their time between the two areas at unannounced intervals.

The original bridge plan by the Pechan came about because of three circumstances.

One was the damage done to the original Garvers Ferry Bridge connecting Freeport and Allegheny Township.

The span, built in 1889, suffered considerable damage in 1959 when a barge let loose from its moorings and crashed into an abutment, taking out a section on the Freeport side.

The bridge was closed for several months until temporary repairs could be made.

At the time, there were about a dozen students from the Lusesco section of Allegheny Township that attended the old Freeport High School.

This was before Kiski Area High School was built, and those students had to travel all the way to the Tarentum Bridge then up old Route 28 to Freeport.

A four-mile round trip for the students became a 44-mile round trip, thus increasing the clamoring for a new bridge.

Another reason for the proposed bridge was the fact that a number of Freeport residents worked at the Schenley Distillery, including the plant superintendent. That bridge would have cut down the commute considerably for those employees.

Another part of the reasoning for the new bridge’s location was a proposal to consolidate several southern Armstrong County school districts.

One proposal was to merge Freeport, Ford City, Leechburg, Apollo and Elders Ridge. It would be easy to transport Freeport students to an area such as Gilpin, where a consolidated, big school would be built.

Instead, the present Donald Lobaugh Bridge was built in 1965, connecting Allegheny Township with the Butler Junction section of Buffalo Township.

About the same time, Freeport took the state Department of Education to court because students from the borough already were attending the new Freeport Area Joint High School, which was built in 1961, about two miles away.

Freeport won the lawsuit, and that was the final factor in the southern Armstrong school plans falling apart.