The “Pennsy” Bridge was built in 1850 by German, Italian and Irish immigrants. Its style is dry stack or roman arch Methodist construction. Each block was cut to fit its exact spot. Block and tackle were used to put into place. You can still see the notches in the blocks where they picked them up. Each block weighs between 500 and 1200 lbs.
Two rather well known events happened here at the Pennsy Bridge. Also known as Pennsylvania Roailroad’s Motor Car 4648, the Doodlebug was a gasoline-powered shuttle train running between Akron, Ohio and Hudson, Ohio. On July 31, 1940, the Doodlebug crashed into a 73-car freight train at Hudson Drive and Front Street in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Forty-three passengers were killed when the gasoline tank exploded.
Long before the train tragedy, the “Doodlebug Bridge” was the site of the Beatson/Parks murder. In the 1850s, two seedy men from Cleveland, James Parks and William Beatson, arrived in Cuyahoga Falls by mistake. Parks was convicted of killing Beatson, beheading him and throwing the head into the nearby P&O Canal and the body in the river. Mrs. Eunice Gaylord found the blood the next morning. Parks was hanged to death in Akron.
Within the Riverfront Park, off of Front Street, is the old Nauvoo Rock (seen on the bottom left) and the Old Swimming Hole that is adjacent to the (Doodlebug/Pennsy/ B&O) bridge. In fact for many years truant officers knew exactly where to find their summer school escapees – right here, jumping from the bridge into one of the deepest parts of Cuyahoga Falls’ section of river.
