The Bridge was built during 1893, opening on November 14, 1893.  It was a toll bridge from its opening until December 6, 1913 when it was taken over by Allegheny County.  A detailed early history of the bridge is available in R. T. Wiley's book "Elizabeth and Her Neighbors" pages 189 to 197. The bridge  remained in service into 1951  when it was replaced by the four lane bridge that is part of Rt. 51.

During the bridge's twenty years as a Toll Bridge their were a total of twelve different tokens that were used which are described in the information below, click on the image to show full size. The photos below show several of these tokens.

The Tug AID was docked at West Elizabeth for approximately two years,1912 to 1914, and an assumption is that the tokens with the name of the Tug AID on the back were used by the employees of this boats company when crossing the bridge.

Also used were paper tickets as shown below, when and the exact reasons why the paper tickets were used is unknown.

         added 7/22/19

If you have additional information or photos of the tokens used on the bridge please contact me at jwmohney"at" comcast "dot" net.  This is not a clickable address so please change the quoted words to the appropriate symbols.

The Toll Booth, shown below, was located on the Elizabeth side of the bridge with the first Superintendent / Toll Taker being Joseph S. Taylor.  After tolls stopped being required Taylor continued working for Allegheny County on the bridge until he passed away in 1928.  JW Lynch writes in his journal that he began working part time on the bridge during 1927 and then full time in 1928.  Another name I found in the June 1978 issue of S&D Reflector who worked on the bridge as a toll taker was William Hughes.

The date of the photo below and the man shown is unknown but it might be during the 1920s and the man walking in front of the now installed railroad gate might be Joseph Taylor.