Pyle’s Twin Bridges

Pyle's Ford was located about two miles south of Chadd's Ford where today's Route 100 crosses the Brandywine Creek. It was named for the Pyle family who were large land owners on the Pennsbury Township side of the creek. The ford was the route the Continental Army took enroute to defend Chadd's Ford in September of 1777. Several decades later a covered bridge was constructed connecting Pennsbury Township, Chester County to the west with Birmingham Township, Delaware County to the east. By 1854 a contract was let to rebuild the covered bridge over the Brandywine at this location. In 1855 a second contract was let to build a companion bridge to the east across the flood plain to serve as a flood bridge. Together the structures would be called Pyle's Twin Bridges and would have a combined span of 320 feet with a roadway width of 20 feet. William Gamble from Brandywine Summit, Delaware County did the carpentry work and Nathan Jester from Dilworthtown, Chester County did the masonry work. By the early 1920's the bridges were no longer structurally safe to handle increasing automobile and truck traffic. In addition, the Wilmington and Northern Railroad passed just to the west and there was danger of fire and traffic collisions with vehicles exiting the bridge. In 1924 the bridges were demolished and replaced with a modern concrete open deck multi-span bridge in the same location. The railroad would pass under the new elevated bridge. The 1924 bridge is still in use today but is in a deteriorated state unable to be rehabilitated to meet current standards and is planned for replacement by PennDOT. In 2017 the bridges and 2,000 adjacent acres were established as the Twin Bridges Rural Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places. Proceed north on Route 100 towards Chadds Ford.