“Water Under the Bridge” is a local, human-interest column that was published in the Bridgeville News and a series of newspapers that succeeded it from 1991 through 2019. It has continued as a blog, currently being published on Substack.com.
Its author, John Oyler, is a retired Civil Engineer and University of Pittsburgh professor. His email address is joylerpa@icloud.com.
Water Under the Bridge, Copyright © 2016-2026
I recently realized that the Bridgeville Area Historical Society’s collection of family histories lacked one for the Colton family; in response to my request, Don Colton remedied this deficiency by sending me an eloquent document describing his family’s significant contribution to Bridgeville’s heritage. Don’s father, Dr. Harold J. Colton, was a member of the seventh generation of Coltons in the New World, dating back to Quartermaster George Colton in Plymouth Colony in 1644. He grew up in Utica, Pennsylvania, and participated in World War I, being gassed in the trenches in France. After the war he returned to college, earning…
The Bridgeville Area Historical Society’s October program meeting was an update of a memorable talk by raconteur Edd Hale, entitled “The Great Castle Shannon Bank Robbery”, presented originally in March, 2017. In addition to the pleasure of hearing the basic story repeated, this year’s version included several updates which dramatically change our perspective of the event. The robbery occurred on May 14, 1917. In those days Castle Shannon was a busy little community; its principal industry was coal mining. A Russian immigrant named Mikhail Titov became aware of the Castle Shannon First National Bank, an institution that performed a vital…
From 1968 to 2005 the Greater Pittsburgh Guild for the Blind was a familiar institution in Bridgeville. It was a common sight to see trainees on Station Street sweeping their Hoover canes back and forth locating the curb as they crossed the street. Seldom was an issue of the Bridgeville News published without a photograph of Dr. Leon Reid accepting a check from some organization interested in helping the blind. Dozens of local residents regularly volunteered at the agency in a variety of roles. The Guild came to Bridgeville in 1968 when Dr. Reid moved the agency from Shadyside into…
I have been involved in Pitt’s Civil Engineering Senior Design Project program for more than a third of my life; initially as a mentor, then as program coordinator, and now as an advisor to the coordinator. The program serves as the Department’s Capstone event, the culmination of the students’ undergraduate careers. Each student functions as a member of a multi-disciplinary team challenged with the design of the solution of a significant near-real-world problem. One of the responsibilities of my current role is to suggest potential projects. This year one of the projects I suggested, the problem of abandoned mine drainage…
It is surprising how much more I see when I am a passenger in a car than when I am driving. This is the obvious consequence of my current enhanced sensitivity to what I am seeing and experiencing, in contrast to my commitment to concentrate on my principal responsibility when I am in the driver’s seat. One of our favorite sights along I-79 as we travel north toward Chautauqua is an open field full of bison, on the east side of the highway immediately north of the Edinboro exit. We eventually determined that this is the Wooden Nickel Buffalo Farm….
The Bridgeville Area Historical Society kicked off its 2026/2027 program series with an entertaining presentation by Kathy Grant on the “Duncan & Miller Glass Museum”. A docent at the museum, she deftly used a collection of twenty Duncan and Miller pieces to chronicle the evolution of the glass industry in western Pennsylvania, the history of the Duncan & Miller Glass Company, and the changes in what was considered fashionable during the time period 1874 – 1955, while at the same time illustrating the wide variety of tableware and patterns produced in that era. The manufacture of glass in Pittsburgh began…
I have been interested in sawmills and gristmills for many years. Since we have been spending time in western New York State, I have learned that there is an operating (occasionally) grist mill in Busti, New York, not far from our house at Chautauqua. The Busti Historical Society maintains it and actually grinds grain in it once a month during the late Spring, Summer, and early Fall months for the benefit of historical buffs like me. This Fall it was convenient for us to visit it the last Saturday of September, which coincided with the Society’s annual Apple Festival. Elizabeth…
Last week I went to a “Town Hall” which was advertised as an opportunity for the people currently operating the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PG) to introduce themselves to the general public and to solicit feedback from the community regarding its coverage of local news. This specific Town Hall was conducted at the Mt. Lebanon Library for the benefit of folks in the South Hills. Two other similar events will be held elsewhere in Allegheny County. It was well attended; perhaps one third of the audience were current or previous PG employees. Earlier this year Block Communications, the owner of the PG,…
I am proud of the fact that most of my ancestors are folks who came to Pennsylvania in the eighteenth century from Germany and the German part of Switzerland. It may be a stretch to call all of them Pennsylvania Dutch, but that certainly is a convenience. Typical of them are the Smiths, my father’s mother’s family. When my father was growing up, the Smiths lived on the farm next to the Oyler homestead, a farm they had acquired following Pontiac’s Rebellion in 1763. When word that year arrived that hostile Indians had entered “the Valley”, most of its residents…
Last week’s column on the replacement of the Commercial Street Bridge described an impressive local engineering project; this week we would like to discuss another equally impressive project, the ALCOSAN Combined Sewer Remediation Project. This project has a much broader significance; cleaning up the Ohio River affects millions of people downstream. It is also significant to the folks who will be footing the (estimated!) two billion dollars bill to pay for it – all of us ALCOSAN customers. ALCOSAN is the acronym for the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority, an organization with eighty-three customers – the city of Pittsburgh and eighty-two…