AROUND TOWN AND AROUND THE GLOBE
’burg and Beyond
Rear: Patrick McNierney ’83, Brian Hassinger ’82, Randy Cassidy ’82, Miranda McGinnis, Jim Muffly ’82
Lewisburg, Pa.
In fall 1980, Lewisburg Mayor Lewis Hendricks visited Professor Dick McGinnis’ civil engineering class. The borough was looking to revitalize the area around Limestone Run, better known downtown as Bull Run, and Hendricks asked students for help.
Randy Cassidy ’82 proposed an idea: a pedestrian footbridge crossing the creek at Cherry Alley that could withstand the force of future floods.
“I thought we would build a model, put some strain gauges on it, write a report and move on with life,” Cassidy says. His senior design professor, Robert J. Brungraber G’05, had other plans. “The heck with that,” he told him. “We’re gonna build it.”
What They Did
Eighteen months later, Cassidy was inside that footbridge — a covered, wooden span of 46.5 feet — as it made its way on a flatbed up University Avenue to Market Street, where two cranes waited to lift it into place. By his side was project partner Brian Hassinger ’82, while their advisers sat atop the roof, ensuring the bridge cleared the telephone wires along the way. Lewisburg residents lined the snow-covered sidewalks to watch the spectacle.
What Came Next
Forty years and several floods later, the bridge still spans the creek, connecting the Bull Run neighborhood and the downtown shopping district. It has also kept the bridge-builders connected to Lewisburg.
In April, Hassinger, Cassidy, Jim Muffly ’82, Patrick McNierney ’83 and other alumni held a reunion with McGinnis’ widow, Miranda, as well as with Brungraber and his son Robert L. “Ben” Brungraber P’05, both civil engineering professors who oversaw construction.
They performed maintenance and replaced a sign that recognizes the builders and local hero Gordon A. Hufnagle, to whom the bridge is dedicated.
“It continues to bring us together,” Cassidy says.
— Matt Hughes
Robert J. Brungraber died on June 27. His obituary is on page 59.