Bethlehem Moment 1
City Council
Nov 7, 2018
I’m Riley Gallagher, 1605 Chelsea
Good Evening Council President Waldron, Council Members, Mayor Donchez
A Bethlehem Moment: October 2 to October 8, 1916
Within a whirlwind one-week period in October 1916, citizens of the two Bethlehems worked intensely together to raise the final financial piece in funding the Hill-to-Hill Bridge. Large clocks were mounted on the Bethlehem Trust Company north of the river and the E.P. Wilbur Trust Company on the south, where crowds of people gathered at lunch each day singing songs and making speeches while watching the new funding total posted. In the end, in an awesome display of ground-roots civic power, individuals raised over $200,000 towards providing a long-awaited secure and stable link between the two Bethlehems. The Hill-to-Hill Bridge — with its eight approaches plus crossing a river, a canal, and four railroads — was an engineering marvel of its day, and the “fraternal cooperation” of the final campaign to build it spurred the Greater Bethlehem movement. One year later the two Bethlehems would be one.
See R. R. Keim, The Hill-to-Hill Bridge, 1924
https://historicbridges.org/pennsylvania/hilltohill/booklet.pdf
For the full story, see “The Hill-to-Hill Bridge: A Story of ‘Fraternal Cooperation’” under Bethlehem Moments on The Bethlehem Gadfly, September 16, 2018 (thebethlehemgadfly.com/).
A remarkable citizen of Bethlehem! Riley Gallagher is at the forefront of what the community of Bethlehem needs. The love of its history.
Riley’s presentation had the elements of a seasoned public speaker. Thank you for that ‘Bethlehem moment.’