I'm here at the boat launch at the Summerfield Recreation Area of Youghiogheny Lake.

Along with thousands of other Pennsylvanians, because for the first time since the 1950s, the lake has dropped low enough that you are able to see the entirety of the Great Crossings Bridge, as well as a little village that was submerged 80 years ago when the lake was built.

I'm Noles.

I'm here to explore and explain.

So I wanted to stop at this old toll house on the National Road, about a mile east of Great Crossings in a little village called Addison.

To kind of give you some background on the National Road and why that bridge and that little town are so cool.

So the national road was, And I intend to have a video about this whole topic later, but right now, just a little gist of it is it is the first federally funded infrastructure project in the United States, and it was this road that was originally built to connect Cumberland, Maryland to to Saint Louis.

They ran out of money.

They stopped in Vandalia, Illinois.

But one of the great crossings on it was the Great Crossings Bridge over the Youghiogheny.

And actually, the reason it's called the Great Crossings is because Braddock and George Washington both traveled across that so great men had crossed at great crossings, but it was a toll road.

It was a toll road because free roads are a recent, invention.

And this was one of the toll houses along it.

So I'm going to flip the camera around and just kind of poke around the exterior.

This is a super historic area.

There's so much content to cover in this area.

But today we're going to focus on the national road and that little town.

So I will see you over there.

So to continue the history of the road in the town, the road, much like the railroad that came after it, inspired a whole slew of towns to be built along it because people wanted to tap into this new trade route that was available.

It was basically like the interstate of the early 19th century.

One of those towns was Summerfield.

It was never bigger than about 200 people, but it continued to thrive along the national road until 1940, when the Army Corps of Engineers, in an effort to control flooding throughout the Trans Allegheny region, mostly as a result of the 1936 Saint Patrick's Day, flood decided to construct a series of dams on the streams and rivers that fed into the Pittsburgh area, including the Youghiogheny.

So Summerfield was raized in 1940, raized with a Z, meaning it was destroyed.

They cut down all the trees.

They tore down all the houses.

They relocated, all the residents leaving just the stones and the foundations and the bridge behind.

In 1944, the lake reached its full size.

Every winter the water level is lowered a bit to allow for runoff, and so it hasn't been since the 1950s that the water level was low enough that you could see the entirety of the town.

The last few weeks have changed that is okay.

So I made it to the bottom of the boat ramp, which is old U.S.

40.

And if I turn around this way, you get a good view of the old road.

Continuing there, you can kind of see some of the asphalt under that mud.

And this is what have been the main street of Summerfield back in the day.

So as we go down further, we should be able to see some stumps of trees that they cut down as well as foundations.

You're seeing this for the first time with me, so I don't know what to expect yet, but we'll get on camera when we get down there.

And, there's the lake behind me.

I just can't believe how low it is.

New US 40.

And then looking back up towards the top of the hill where I was at the beginning.

So, I will update you as I find new stuff.

Okay, so we've made it further down the road.

It is slow walking because there's just so much desolation to look at.

But we found our first, ruins here.

This is a, cement wall of some kind.

Whether that be a foundation or a patio or a sidewalk, I don't know.

And then over here, you can see a lower bit of a wall as well.

And that's got some grooves in it.

So anybody that's good at, modern day archeology, so to speak, if you could let me know what that might be, because we've got the main road coming down this way.

And so whether this would have been the front wall of a building or maybe the back wall, I don't know.

But I'm excited that we're starting to see some ruins.

We've got this giant metal thing, which is actually what caught my eye to come over this way before I even noticed the walls.

It's hard to say what this would be.

Some kind of railing.

Maybe.

So it looks like it was bolted into the concrete at some point.

Or at least it could have been down here.

It's definitely been underwater for a long time.

That is pretty amazing.

So you can see kind of the ledge here, but, you know, I am amazed.

Actually, I know this has been underwater, but how how few remains.

We're seeing here's another one.

We've got some old block down here.

Is that terracotta I can't I'm not good at my material ID.

But, probably a doorway here in the corner.

And then you've got the wall back here.

That is pretty cool.

Try to get my shadow out of the way there.

So this would have been probably the back of some kind of building.

I know that it was a small town.

You know, houses and stores lining the street.

I'll show you some historical photos later on, but you get an idea of kind of the topography of the town.

If I put the camera up like this.

This is really cool.

I'm still making my way down to the bridge.

I'll update you when I get there.

This is an old sidewalk.

Here's a piece of the foundation of a building.

I assume.

Look at that.

How cool is that?

Wow.

And actually, there are sidewalks that look worse than that that are currently being maintained by Pittsburgh.

So I'm actually pretty amazed at how good the condition these are.

And wow.

And here's the front of a building or a house.

If something.

Oh wow.

All right.

I made it to the other side of the street.

Now check this out.

The guy up at the top of the historic pictures he was talking about all these trees that used to line the main street.

They cut them down to put the lake in and the stumps still remain.

That is really cool.

You know what?

That still feels like wood to?

I mean, it of course feels like wood, but I mean, I kind of feel it expected to feel more like stone at this point.

Again, I know nothing about that process at all, so I'm just making it up on the fly.

But anyway, that's really cool.

Here's a sidewalk on the north side of the 40 or the old National road, I should say.

And then, here's the front of this building.

Now, I think this the town was really only one block on either side of the main street.

So clearly this was like the center of life in the town.

But then you had streets going on the front to the back, and I think houses off of those as well.

It's more of a village than a town, but really up this way there's there's scant evidence of that.

But I think I noticed looking down this way, that there are even more foundations.

And I know that this is just the same thing pretty much as before.

But to me, it's it's just fascinating.

And look at this, this, that is an old can.

That's it.

That's the lid of the can.

But look at that.

Pull down.

What does that say.

Disposed of properly.

Yeah.

Well this isn't proper I think I might take this.

Oh I don't know if they'll frown upon that, but it's gone now.

So over this way down, I should probably walk on the sidewalk.

That's what it's here for, right?

And all the, indentations over here on the sidewalk.

They don't make them like that anymore.

I know I say this in just about every video where explorer stuff, but if you know what you're looking at, I clearly don't.

So remember comment below if you know why they would have pockmarked the sidewalk like this.

Like it because it has something to do with the concrete construction.

Back in the day, which does seem like that.

Ended up here.

Yeah, look at this.

I'm seeing more foundations maybe of a house.

Yeah.

Here's some steps.

So here's a little wall coming out.

Going back.

So it looks like to me some steps.

And then I. Don't know.

That would be whether that's inside the house or this right here.

Do either way.

You know I'd be curious to know too, if you dig down for it right here.

How far did this foundations go?

Gacy old cement floor.

Are the sellers dirt?

That'd be a cool archeological project.

Depending on how long this lake's going to be built like this, which I doubt will really be that long.

And over here.

You've got some real dark circles over here.

I think maybe that's just people digging up, because I've seen quite a few people with metal detectors out here.

This is actually pretty well preserved as well.

Pretty well delineated.

Anyway.

Once you get this concrete.

Look at that.

Look at that.

Okay, we're coming up on the bridge now, on the old bank of the Youghiogheny river.

So the river would have flowed through the arches of this bridge.

Of course, this is why it was built.

And it really looks pretty alien.

It doesn't even look like a river right now.

But there is actually some water in here.

Oh, wait, I don't want to get too close to that.

Look at that.

Now that's some nice, acid mine drainage right there.

We've got some kind of cement something, or rather over here.

This is.

It's hard to tell, actually, what anything really is because there's so little left.

But there's a tree stump.

There's quite a few tree stumps over there, and you can see just how low the current is of the river right now.

I would have loved to have seen this before 1940, with just the lush riverbanks and the stones and everything.

Because some of the old postcards that I've seen are just gorgeous.

So there's the bridge over there.

It doesn't look like they're letting people on it can't get as close as I want to.

Okay, I made it over the lake.

This might be the bad side for lighting.

I'll have to go check out the other side.

But look at that.

That is cool.

You can see all three stone arches going out.

That would have crossed the Youghiogheny river.

And now, of course, are usually fully submerged by Yough Lake and you really get a sense of the the skill that the Masons had.

I mean, this was built in 1818.

So all hand I mean, I'm sure, you know, horses drew some of this stone, but but the fact that it's still standing is pretty amazing.

Just do you think our bridges would still stand if they were underwater for over 80 years, after over 100 years of use?

I don't know, but, I mean, that's just incredible what you can see where the sidewalk kind of ends and disintegrates into into the bridge.

Now, fortunately, I can't get up on it because there's, there's park rangers blocking it, which I understand.

I mean, that is probably pretty dangerous, but I'm just happy to actually see it in person.

The the craftsmanship on that is just incredible.

So this bridge is 206 years old now and it looks great.

I'm going to go over to the other side and see what I can see over there.

Exactly like.

Okay, this area over here caught my eye because, you know, I've been in the deserts in Nevada.

I've been out to Colorado and Arizona and Utah, and this is pretty much what it looks like.

I mean, this is dry.

This is dry.

Look at how big these cracks are compared to my shoe, for instance.

And then you've got these, which I think is is interesting.

I think people probably pulled some wires out of the ground is my guess or some rebar or something, because there's little pieces of it here, and you can see these tracks going the whole way through this mud.

So I think that's just human intervention.

There.

There's a couple tires.

There's, I guess an old stump over there.

I have to walk over there and take a look at that.

And in this part, this is really cool.

I noticed this when we were coming down.

So this is the new U.S 40 bridge here that you drive across now.

But underneath, I'm assuming when they put the lake and that this was the bridge, the quote unquote new bridge at the time, and then it's since been replaced and it looks like there's the bridge piers and a bunch of junk still down there.

So I'm definitely going to make my way over there also and, let you know what I find.

And for a guy that loves bridges and loves old towns, this is the spot to be right now.

And if anybody else is interested in that, I highly encourage you to come check this place out while it is still visible.

That being said, it could rain tomorrow and raise this lake level.

I don't know what the weather forecast looks like, but I know today it's a beautiful day and that blue sky really makes the the mud and the the dry ground stick out even more than it would normally.

So I know I've said so.

There's this wooden box, for lack of a better term over here that appears to have been here for a while.

I mean, there's some bracing on the inside of it.

I have no idea what that would be used for.

And then there's some old machinery as well.

Is that an engine block sitting over here?

Look how rusty.

I think it's.

Wow.

And then there's another one of these barrels that are filled with concrete.

That's probably for some kind of, dock or Marina infrastructure.

And there's another, machine of some sort over here.

I'm not good at, categorizing things.

As soon as I see them, I have to do some research on that.

And I also noticed this little, cement platform over here, probably from another house or or a structure, at the very least.

And there's, a little wall in the shadow over there that appears to be more recently made.

If I had to guess.

But yeah, look at that.

Some front steps.

So probably a couple steps up that have been covered in mud.

And then it just kind of disappears.

I'd be really curious to, to do some archeology here.

Of course, I'm not a professional at all, but I think it'd be cool now.

I wonder, see the straight line through the where it's it's, wetter on both sides when it's drier in the middle.

I wonder if that was an old road leading back up to the main road.

If I had to venture a guess, that's what I would guess.

And that's something under the surface is preventing it from becoming as wet or remaining as wet as the other sides are, because that is like a perfectly straight line.

And that's looking back up towards the, Marina and I, I think I got this building at the beginning, but forgive me, this wooden building, I believe, is an original building from town, and that is the, Summerfield inn now.

And, I think it's a really nice building.

Probably gives a good idea of what the town used to look like.

Again, there's those historic pictures as well, so you get an idea from those.

Now, I'm almost over to the bridge here, and the lighting is going to change a little bit when I get into the shadow.

I know that mud flats look really bright right now.

There's some tire tracks coming through.

Okay, so yeah.

So here are some more pieces of concrete.

You know, I might be wrong about a more recent construction on these.

I'll have to take another look, because it could be that the Park Service or the Army Corps just dumped things here.

But it could also be that these were kind of left here at the same time.

So what do you think?

Let me know in the comments below.

But I'm actually thinking now that I'm looking that these were just dumped here and there's some wood down there as well that was dumped.

I'll get a closer look at that.

But I want to head over there a little closer and get a look at the, the rubble from the second Great Crossings Bridge.

And just for some scale, There's the old bridge over there.

Right.

So I'll catch up with you in a minute.

Okay, so I just filmed this little section, and now I might have to to rethink my whole thoughts on this, because I don't know what I'm looking at here.

We've got a whole bunch of timber bolted together, right?

We've got these two big concrete blocks.

But then I didn't notice until I got up here that this whole road looks like a solid piece of something and, built.

So boat ramp, maybe, or a secondary street in town.

Because there's this little track down the middle.

And then there's these concrete pieces over on the side, but they kind of look like they've just been laid there.

I took a second to think, and I think I have solved my little mystery of what this is.

Some of you look at this and going, oh, yeah, I knew the answer.

But this is my guess, is that these little concrete sections which have, if you look that they aren't in the ground, they're sitting on top of the ground.

But they have these little old railings on top right, at least where railings used to be.

And they've been placed in a way that they don't quite touch in the middle, that there's a little path.

But you can tell that they were a curb and sidewalk of some sort.

This back street in the town, if it was here, wouldn't have had curbs and a sidewalk because the main street doesn't even have curbs.

So what I'm thinking is that this and these pieces of wood would have come from the demolition of this second bridge, which is over here, I'm assuming, and I don't know the history entirely, that the second bridge was built in 1940, when the, when the lake was built, and later on sometime probably in the 70s or later, the secondary bridge or second bridge, I should say, was built, which carries it at a higher level, or at least at a slightly different angle.

So I think when they took apart the second bridge, they said, hey, let's just dump this in the lake because it's a lake, who cares?

And it's cement.

So it sunk.

But they took the railings off for some reason, at some point, maybe for scrap.

And so now it looks like this little artificial road.

But I think that's my my guess.

That's my sleuthing.

If you have other ideas on what this thing is, please let me know in the comments down below.

This is what I really like about exploring is finding these little things that I did not anticipate that I have no knowledge of, and trying to figure out based on clues, what they are.

I think it's fun, even if I am 100% wrong as to the answer.

So I'm going to head on over that way and see if maybe I can find more clues to answer this.

Based in the rubble of that second bridge.

And if this is true, by the way, this makes this even cooler that you can still simultaneously see three bridges that cross is, even if this one has been moved out of place, because I'm going to get back up here again and have you take a look at the information that I see.

All right.

And let me know what you think.

Doesn't that look like a road to you?

I'm no holes.

I'm here to guess.

That's my new channel name.

So let's walk over here.

And see what else we can find.

Because.

Because really, it looks like they just imploded this bridge and left the wreckage.

Is, What is that, a javelin spear?

Do they hold the Olympics here?

There's a giant piece of rebar.

Wow.

So there's the the mighty Yough flowing right down there.

It looks like a little creek.

In here, you have the pillars of the second bridge that was built to cross here.

Just let's look at.

They just exploded.

Wow.

Now it makes me wonder what secrets lay under other lakes.

You know that never drove this.

Well.

Just the massive of rebar down there is.

It's just crazy that they didn't even bother to remove that or anything.

And then the one pillar, kind of in the middle of the new bridge, that makes me wonder what that's all about as well.

Wow, that is pretty incredible.

Now, I really don't think there's anything more of the town this way.

I'm going to walk out this way a little bit just to find out if there is.

But based on what I've seen there, there isn't.

But I'll let you know.

I'll report back.

I just found this piece of terracotta pipe.

I know that's still pretty common, you see today, but I just think that looks pretty cool.

I wonder how long it's been under there.

And then I wanted to tell you, too.

I just heard a guy say over there that the water is currently 4.5ft deep, and it's usually 85.

So that gives you a pretty good idea of just how tall or high the lake should be, and how much water this stuff is usually under.

The dirt is really hard here.

I was talking to Tucker and he said, it's really hard to dig too, and I'm sure that that is, because of the water pressure that's usually here.

So just wanted to throw that in there.

So after a good dinner over the Anchor Inn, we decided to come on over to the other side.

This area used to be called Jockey Hollow.

That's what I've seen it called on the old maps, and usually it's also part of the lake.

But evidently this part has been out of the water for so long that it's being maintained pretty much as a pedestrian path, and you can see all the grass growing on top of the rocks.

And in fact, over here we've been looking and we think this is probably, you know, pretty accurate to what it used to look like before the lake was even here like that, that prairie and the stream coming through, I mean, it's it's really pretty over here.

So a guy back at the main area said that apparently you can see some chimneys over on this side, or at least you used to be able to.

I kind of doubt that personally, but I wanted to take a look and, it's really cool nonetheless.

It's it's really beautiful over here compared to, like, the desert like atmosphere over on the main part.

And, you can see some old, some docks laying over there and, so I'm going to continue down this path for ways and, see what what we can see over here.

Stay tuned.

So I'm coming over to the edge of the lake here, where all these docks from the Marina have been sitting for who knows how long.

And I thought this was pretty interesting.

If you can see it on the camera as well as I can see it.

So there's these few houses up here.

And at the end of their road they had a little access to probably a private dock on this corner of the lake.

And as the water level has significantly dropped over the years, they keep having to add steps.

And eventually now it's to the point where, of course, there's no water here at all.

Nobody uses these docks.

And, Look at that.

I mean, they just keep going down the hill over the years as the water level drops.

I think that's funny, but I also think it's kind of sad because I'm sure they paid a lot of money to live waterfront.

And now there is no water to front.

So we walked down about as far as we could.

So until it got really, really muddy and then, you know, couldn't really walk any further.

And, we're walking back up.

This is the original stream that would have come through this hollow, and it's been kind of relegated to this little channel with eroded banks, because it has to cut through all the sediment that was deposited here.

And it's all orange, which is the, state color for streams, apparently.

And looking down that way around that bend would be the, bridge in where the town, of Summerfield was.

So just a cool perspective on this side.

The lake.

And it looks to me like this side is more, more regularly without water than the main part of the lake is really pretty back in here.

Okay, I found a shadowy spot to wrap up this video.

So not being blinded while I'm filming it, I want to say thank you for watching tuning in to this episode.

I've had a blast exploring this place today, and I think this was a good shot.

Also, to show you kind of the the history and like the reason I came here in the first place.

So this is the 1818 Great Crossings Bridge, which is now, of course, visible.

I'm underneath the current, the third generation bridge.

And then you've got the ruins of the second generation bridge right there.

And this would have all been the town of Summerfield back in the day, from about 1827, I think, to about 1940.

So it's really incredible that this is still here and that I hadn't heard about it before, and that I was able to in quick succession from hearing about it, to come explore it and then to share it with you.

That's the magic of YouTube and the internet, I guess, is that I can record something that I find really fascinating and I'm passionate about, and share it with people who also find it.

So thank you for watching and tuning in.

And if you get a chance to come down to, Summerfield in The Great Crossings, check it out for yourself.

This is a neat place.

I hope you liked everything that I had to show you today.

I'll see you next time.