Glen Hall Bridge

One and a half miles upstream from Northbrook there was once a railroad station was named Halls. The surrounding area was owned by the Hall family who were extensive landowners and well known farmers in that locality. Ezra Hall owned the property adjacent to the railroad and Brandywine Creek which also was the site of a saw and feed mill. Inside of the railroad station there was a small US Post Office known as Glen Hall. Today's Glen Hall Road, just west of Barnard's Orchards used to be a through road crossing the western branch of the Brandywine at the Glen Hall Bridge. This bridge connected to Brandywine Drive north of the Brandywine. That road connects Route 162 upstream and to Northbrook Road downstream. The first bridge at Glen Hall was an185 foot Ohio Iron Bridge built in 1868 by Ezra Hall and Thomas Schull. Not typical of the times the iron bridge was replaced by a wooden covered bridge in 1881. Typically wooden bridges were replaced by iron structures but in parts of Chester County wooden bridges were built until the late 19th century. The Glen Hall Bridge was a two span Burr arch type bridge built by brothers Ferdinand and Menander Wood for $3,400. Reuben Pearson did the stonework for the bridge for $988.The bridge had 3 inch white oak planks for the road decking. In the later years of the bridge a 3 ton weight restriction was placed on the structure. When school buses came to the bridge the children had to get off and walk across. The empty bus would follow and the children re-entered the bus. In 1962 the wooden bridge burned, not to be rebuilt. Glen Hall Road then became the dead end road that it is today. Today the area where the bridge and railroad station stood is part of the ChesLen Preserve. The bridge foundation can still be seen from Brandywine Drive. Continue on Brandywine Drive until you reach Route 162.