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Jets release center Mangold, longest-tenured member of team

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Divinity Roxx coming to the River Street Jazz Cafe March 11

<p>It&#8217;s a gem turned eyesore turned life-threatening danger. It is, in other words, an example of so many things done wrong with old structures in Luzerne County.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8221; is the Coxton Railroad bridge, a classic steel-truss-bridge span of multiple sections resting on stone piers jutting up from the Susquehanna River&#8217;s bed, just off Route 92 in Exeter Township.</p><p>It has no distinctive qualities. It is not the longest, highest or any other &#8220;est&#8221; of its type. It boasts no architectural or structural innovation for its day. It has no great historical value.</p><p>It doesn&#8217;t lead anywhere particularly compelling except perhaps for railroad buffs, or for photo bugs specializing in images of run-down remains from the iron horse era, people likely to feel a buzz prowling around the Coxton railroad yard.</p><p>Yet it stands as testimony to a mix of collective ineptitude, bad decisions and bad timing &#8212; a mix that, at times, seems distinctive to this region.</p><p>One of two things should have happened at least a decade ago: Demolition or re-purposing.</p><p>The latter was improbable. Unlike, say the Walnut Street Bridge restored and maintained as a pedestrian/bicycle link between Harrisburg&#8217;s riverfront and City Island, there is no compelling public destination on either side of the Coxton structure.</p><p>And while it could have been a valuable part of a bicycle/pedestrian path snaking along the Susquehanna, no such path exists.</p><p>Outside of train service, the bridge&#8217;s best use probably would have been as a minor destination, a quiet, well-maintained place for pedestrians to stroll and pause while watching the river beneath them.</p><p>The sad part: It probably would have cost as much a decade or more ago to fulfill such a vision as it will cost now to raze the thing.</p><p>The reasons it <em>hasn&#8217;t</em> been razed?</p><p>The Luzerne County Redevelopment Authority purchased the bridge and other railroad property by securing a mortgage from F&amp;L Realty, which had ties to Lackawanna County businessman Louis DeNaples. In 2000, the authority asked the county for financial help to avoid defaulting on the mortgage. The county agreed to help. Not much hope for money to raze the structure in that scenario.</p><p>In 2007, the authority sold the bridge to Leo Glodzik, who seemed to think he could profit by selling the steel for scrap. Two problems emerged: The cost of removing the metal would probably exceed any income from selling the scrap, and Glodzik ran into a boatload of legal problems. Not much hope for money to raze the bridge in that scenario, either.</p><p>Now the decaying deck presents serious hazard to anyone daring (or dumb) enough to walk it, debris threatens those paddling beneath it, and the piers threaten to collapse in high water and risk a massive river dam.</p><p>On Tuesday, the Redevelopment Authority <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/636815/plans-to-tear-down-deteriorating-coxton-railroad-bridge-over-susquehanna-approved" target="_blank">retook ownership</a> of the span in the hopes of securing sufficient state money to finally tear it down. Here&#8217;s hoping.</p><p>But while the fate of the bridge is the immediate concern, the folly of the bridge is a lesson to be learned.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Abandoned Coxton railroad bridge between Exeter and Duryea owned by LAG Towing.  Clark Van Ordfen | Times Leader</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/web1_TTL082615bridge.jom_-3.jpg</photo0><caption0>Abandoned Coxton railroad bridge between Exeter and Duryea owned by LAG Towing.  Clark Van Ordfen | Times Leader</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>

Our view: A lesson to be learned in fate of Coxton bridge