Pratt Gabbro Bridge

The bridge that carried the Patuxent Branch Railroad across the Middle Patuxent River is locally known as the Gabbro Bridge. No, the bridge was not made of that hard traprock called gabbro. It was known as the Gabbro Bridge due to its close proximity to the Gabbro rail station on the PBR line that served the W.T. Manning quarries. 

Of the 4 bridges on the old Patuxent Branch Rail line that opened in 1902, two of them were Pratt bridges - one crossing the Little Patuxent River at Guilford and this one crossing the Middle Patuxent River just above Savage. It was comprised of two parts - the 93-foot long iron bridge and a 148 foot timber trestle.  

The bridge abutments were made of Guilford granite but had to be encased in concrete since they would mostly be submerged by the pond above Savage Dam (see photo). The pond was only a few feet below the bridge as you can see from the photo.  The 1918 ICC valuation documents indicate that the timber trestle for this bridge had been originally connected to the Pratt bridge at Guilford before it was moved here.

The remains of the abutments can be located from Wincopin Trail, where you can stand atop of one and see the other toppled into the river. (See photos). The view from the Savage trail isn’t as clear but you can see the intact abutment across the river and the bottom of the toppled one nearer to the shore. 

The bridge was still standing after the PBR line was taken out of service in 1928 but was no longer visible in a 1943 aerial photo and does not appear to be visible in a 1937 aerial photo but it hard to determine. The bridge likely was destroyed by a flood that took the timber trestle down first followed by the iron bridge. Perhaps this occurred during the flooding of the Middle Patuxent River, and many others, in April of 1940 or earlier.  But no definitive record of that destruction exists...yet.