Thomas Birch (American, 1779–1851) Chain Bridge at Falls of Schuylkill

Exhibited

"First Annual Exhibition," Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 1811, no. 49 (as View of the Chain Bridge and Falls of Schuylkill, five miles from Philadelphia).

Literature

T. Lewis, American Paintings, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1998, no. 7 (illustrated).

Note

The Chain Bridge at Falls of Schuylkill (now East Falls) was the second bridge to ever spread across the Schuylkill River. Erected in 1808, this iron-chain suspension bridge was placed north of Philadelphia, about five miles upstream from Timothy Palmer’s Permanent Bridge (1804). Designed by James Finley, it had a span of about 200 feet, and became the model for future suspension bridges in the country. Its chain cables were carried across the river thanks to three pairs of A-shaped wooden towers, two of which were placed on its eastern and western embankments, while another sat atop a stone pier built in the middle of the river. Despite the national attention the bridge received, its physical existence did not last since, after many incidents, it collapsed on January 16, 1816 as reported by the United States Gazette: “The Chain Bridge at the Falls of Schuylkill fell down about five o’clock on Wednesday morning. This unfortunate occurrence is said to have been occasioned by the great weight of snow which remained on it, and a decayed piece of timber. There was no person on the bridge when it fell.” Today, the Reading Railroad Viaduct has replaced it.

Thomas Birch painted the Chain Bridge twice in the same year, thus proving his fascination with the city’s fast transformation, introducing state-of-the-art technologies into its old perimenter to make it one of America's top industralist hubs.

Provenance

The Williamson Family Collection, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Collection of Stephanie Kenyon and Don Webster, Maryland, circa 1982.

Schwarz Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by 1998.

Acquired directly from the above.

Private Collection.

Christie's, New York, sale of May 21, 2001, lot 24.

Acquired directly from the above sale.

The Papageorge Family Collection, Carversville, Pennsylvania.