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Summer Vacation Road Trip - Washington and Greene Counties, PA

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Back to some of the photos I took while in Pennsylvania over the 4th of July. On Saturday, July 5th, I headed out on a small road trip in rural Washington and Greene Counties. Mainly to explore parts of both counties that I hadn't seen or been to in years.

Route: PA 48, PA 51, I-70, PA 43, PA 88, PA 188, PA 221, PA 231, US 40, Old National Pike, I-70 and various routes to the South Hills and then home.

The entire flickr set is here.

I found two keystones along the way - Fredericktown and Jefferson. really need to get back to updating the site...I'm still working on West Virginia for what seems like forever - and I have at least three dozen keystones to add.

Just beyond Jefferson on PA 221 is the Cox Farm Covered Bridge. The bridge was built in 1940 and is a simple Kingpost Through Truss covered bridge - which is very widely used style of covered bridge in Southwestern PA.

Throughout out the trip, there were plenty of great rural barns like this one just a few hundred yards east of the PA 221/I-79 Interchange.

One of Fred Yenerall's subjects were rural one room schoolhouses. The simplicity of these buildings really tell a story. Where 221 meets PA 18 near Prosperity - there is a former one room schoolhouse - Archer No. 1.

I headed up PA 221 to US 40 and the Claysville 'S' Bridge. The stone arch bridge shaped like an S dates from the early days of the National Road in the early 1800's. The bridge is the centerpiece of a small roadside park. (Unfortunately, the sun was pretty much shining directly into the best photo angles.)



I continued on PA 221 north to its end at PA 231. I had traveled this part of 221 before, but I didn't recall seeing this great old truss bridge north of Taylorstown on Walker Hill Road.

My next stop was at the Sawhill Covered Bridge - which I first photographed in December 2003. But since then, it has been totally rehabilitated. In 2004, the bridge was damage from flooding rains from the remnants of Hurricane Ivan. The rebuild occurred in 2005.

Headed back towards Claysville on PA 231 and decided to follow the old National Pike (US 40) through West Alexander. This alignment begins at the Claysville Interchange (Exit 6) on I-70 and runs through West Alexander and into West Virginia.

I hadn't been on this stretch of the old highway - and it was actually a nice country drive.


I then headed towards Pittsburgh to visit relatives for dinner. On the way, I snapped a shot of this great old button copy relic from the Pittsburgh Department of Public Works.

Not a bad piece way to close out a road trip. One more set from this vacation is left - a walk around Elizabeth and Webster, PA
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Steve A said…
I just realized that's the same S bridge I saw when I headed out to Indy. So there will be some more angles for photos once I get to that part of the update.
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