Look Back: Do the eagles on the Market Street Bridge have names?

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Several months ago, my good friend Jon YonKondy inquired if the four eagles on the Market Street Bridge pylons have names?

Intrigued, I quickly did a search in our newspaper archives and came up empty but felt compelled, driven and eager to continue the investigation.

What I found were each of the four pylons, or pillars, the eagles are perched upon were given mottoes prior to the September 1929 opening of the $2.8 million Market Street Bridge, the fourth bridge to span the Susquehanna River at that location since 1817.

“County adopts bridge mottoes. Words to be cut into granite arches indicative of Wyoming Valley’s History,” was the headline in the Wilkes-Barre Record newspaper on Jan. 1, 1929.

“The pylons consist of two heavy columns of concrete and granite about 20 feet high, joined at the top with an arch, and will span the sidewalks at the entrances to the bridge. The mottoes will be cut into the granite arches. They will add considerably to the ornamental treatment of the new structure, and indicate the history and accomplishment of the people who developed the city and valley,” the Record reported.

According to news accounts when the bridge was constructed, Judge Henry A. Fuller drafted the mottoes for each pylon.

Mottoes adopted for each of the four pylons are:

PERSEVERANCE to the fortitude of early settlers who faced hardship.

PROSPERITY to the industry constructed by human hand and brain.

PATRIOTISM to the service of veterans who served during the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish-American War and World War I.

PROGRESS to the culture of teachers and schools.

While the pylons each have a motto, is it safe to accept that each eagle is named after each named pylon?

According to newspaper accounts of 1927 to 1929, 52,900 cubic yards of concrete, 39,000 tons of sand, 60,000 tons of gravel, 1,300 tons of reinforced steel and 18,000 cubic feet of limestone masonry were used to construct the Market Street Bridge that consist of 12 piers, five over the river, five on the Kingston side and two abutment piers.

The limestone eagles mounted on each pylon came from Bedford, Ind.

“Designed on the dimensions of prehistoric monsters, four huge American eagles will rest majestically on the pylons being erected as part of the decorative work on the new Market Street Bridge. Each eagle weighs 12 tons, is nine feet high and 12 feet wide. The figures were carved by hand from Indiana limestone quarried at Bedford, Indiana,” reported the Times Leader evening edition June 27, 1929.

A famous picture published in the Times Leader on June 27, 1929, and posted on Wilkes-Barre City History’s Facebook page named the workers who hoisted and mounted the eagles. Those named are R.C. Stokes, superintendent of construction; Jack Sylvan, Jack Stokes, Tom Laverick, Harry Galey, Lee Brader and Loren Ostrander, all workers of the Walter Rae Construction Company. The lone woman in the photo is the wife of Stokes. An eighth man in the picture was not identified.

“The last of four limestone eagles gracing the pylons on Market Street Bridge was placed in position today by Rae Construction Company,” reported the Evening News on July 29, 1929.

The Market Street Bridge formally opened Sept. 25, 1929.