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Everybody
Down!
Most of us prefer words to arbitrary numbers. Within ten miles southeast of my apartment, I encounter state routes 56, 66, 286, 356, and 366. Thats not fair. Not having grown up in the area, I cant keep them straight. Road names would be more memorable.
I found a publication called The History of Tarentum that confirms my speculation. At Lock Street there was indeed a canal lock. And, sure enough, there was another one mile away at Mile Lock Lane. These were two of the 64 such facilities on the Main Line between Pittsburgh and Johnstown. The horses and mules that pulled the canal boats had to be changed for fresh animals every eight miles or so. There was a stable for them in Tarentum near the present-day corner of Fifth Avenue and Ross Street, where the boats could be docked overnight in a basin located between the stable and the lock.
Shopkeeper Robert McAyeal, born in county Antrim, Ireland, in 1783, came to this country when young and spent the greater part of his life in the mercantile business, according to an obituary. He died when the canal did, in 1863, and hes buried in a cemetery a few blocks from where I live. His son James then ran the store until 1907. But what about Bridge Street? Is it also related to the canal? The name might refer to a bridge across the Allegheny River, but thats unlikely. As far as I know, that engineering feat wasnt accomplished until 1952, when a 1,784-foot-long steel bridge was opened. For a decade, motorists had to pay a 10-cent toll to use it. The Tarentum end is near the site of the old stable. No, the name must come from a small narrow bridge over the canal itself. And the History confirms that There was a row bridge at Bridge Street. It isnt there now. After a railroad supplanted the canal more than a century and a half ago, all that has been required is a level crossing, a grade crossing over the tracks. Often I hear a freight train passing through, blowing its horn.
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