Sep 23, 2020 2 min read

DONORA – The Donora Historical Society went to the borough garage this summer looking for salvaged parts of demolished buildings only to find a prized relic from a historic bridge.

Society volunteer Mark Pawelec said he found the 1908 dedication plaque that once adorned the borough’s side of the Donora-Webster Bridge.

“It is cool,” Pawelec said.

He then reached out to a member of Rostraver Historical Society to find the plaque from the Webster side of the bridge, which was imploded in July 2015.

That search led to the township maintenance garage in Rostraver, Westmoreland County, where the plaque had been stored since the bridge disappeared from the landscape.

The bridge relics were saved under an agreement between the state’s Department of Transportation and Historical and Museum Commission because the truss span was on the National Register of Historic Places. The bridge was historic because its beams were pinned together in a style borrowed from the Pennsylvania Railroad.

The bridge was assembled with Cambria Steel as the U.S. Steel mill in Donora made wire and rods, Pawelec said. Donora founder William H. Donner also was president of Cambria at the time.

The plaques are now resting in Donora at Regal Industrial Corp., a company that specializes in sandblasting and metal coatings.

Regal has agreed to restore the plaques for free so that both historical societies can display them at their museums in about two months.

“It’s just to give back to the town,” said Anthony Rusch, project manager.

“It’s an opportunity to save the bridge,” Pawelec added.

The plaques bear the name of Wylie Civil Engineering of Washington County and those of the commissioners from the counties on each side of the Monongahela River.

The commissioners at the time were: J.A. Huffman, D.W. Myers and R.D. Wylie in Washington County; and D.W. Shupe, B.C. Shaffer and W.D Reamer in Westmoreland County.