When crowds flock to the Veterans Memorial Bridge on Saturday for the 22nd annual Bridge Bust, they'll be walking on history.

While the 5,183-foot-long bridge, which carries Route 462 over the Susquehanna River, is less than a century old — in fact, it opened 80 years ago Thursday, after a year's construction — it's the fifth bridge to connect Columbia and Wrightsville along that short stretch of river.

The Bridge Bust, hosted by the Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Center, runs Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and features some 300 vendors offering antiques, arts, crafts and more.

Held rain or shine, the event typically draws more than 15,000 people to the bridge, originally called the Lancaster-York Intercounty Bridge.

The two-lane Veterans Memorial Bridge was built of reinforced concrete, standing on 27 river piers and 22 piers on the approach, for $2.5 million. Automobiles crossing the 425-million-pound bridge paid a 25-cent toll until Jan. 31, 1943.

But the crossing itself is far older.

Claire Storm, president of Rivertownes PA USA, said Columbia probably wouldn't exist if it hadn't been a good spot to cross the river.

"I believe the river was and is the lifeline for Columbia," she said.

"Columbia and the bridges here certainly opened up the West," Storm said. "A great number of people who were traveling west crossed here in Columbia."

Columbia was founded on the back of Wright's Ferry, which started carrying people, horses and wagons across the Susquehanna in 1730.

It wasn't until 1814 that people could walk or ride from bank to bank without a boat. The first bridge — which stretched 5,690 feet just south of the current Route 30 bridge — was built of wood and stone, resting on 54 piers.

Construction cost $231,771 — about $2.4 million today — underwritten by the newly formed Columbia Bank & Bridge Co.

A covered bridge, it included a wood roof over twin carriageways and a whitewashed interior. It was believed to be the longest covered bridge in the world at the time, according to various online sources.

A wagon with a team of six horses paid a $1.50 toll to cross, while a pedestrian could stride across for 6 cents.

It succumbed to an early thaw, destroyed Feb. 5, 1832, by a combination of ice and high water.

Construction of a second bridge, costing $157,300, began later that year. It opened July 8, 1834, just north of the current Route 462 bridge. Its empty piers are still visible above the water.

The wood-and-stone structure — built in part from materials salvaged from the first bridge — was 5,620 feet long and stood on 27 piers. It had a carriageway and walkway, plus two bi-level towpaths added in 1840 to guide canal traffic between the Pennsylvania Canal in Columbia and the Tidewater Canal in Wrightsville.

A double-track rail line was added sometime after 1846, linking the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad to the Northern Central Railway. Rail cars were towed across the bridge by horse or mule teams to prevent locomotives from sparking a fire.

Like its predecessor, it was considered the world's longest covered bridge.

It was burned by Columbia volunteers on June 28, 1863, to prevent Confederate troops from crossing the river. With their advance toward Lancaster and Philadelphia halted, the Confederate army turned instead to Gettysburg.

The Columbia Bank & Bridge Co. sold rights to the bridge's remains — including the valuable piers — to the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1864. The rail company built a new bridge on the previous bridge's foundations in 1868 for $400,000.

Also a covered bridge, it was 5,390 feet long, made of steel, wood and stone. It was destroyed by a hurricane on Sept. 30, 1896.

Those old piers weren't left empty for long. The railroad company built a fourth bridge in record time — construction began on April 16, 1897, and ended May 11 of that year — using iron and prefabricated steel trusses.

The bridge was never finished. Although it served trains, cars and pedestrians on a rail line and twin carriageway, plans for an upper deck never came to pass.

Known colloquially as the "Iron Bridge," it carried passenger trains until 1954 and freight trains until 1958.

It was dismantled for scrap in 1963-64, leaving only the old stone piers behind.

The most recent addition to that segment of river is the Wrights Ferry Bridge, a modern span that bears four lanes of Route 30 just north of Veterans Memorial Bridge.

The sixth bridge to cross the river at Columbia, it opened in 1972 after more than three years' construction costing $12 million. The bridge, of reinforced concrete and steel, rests on 45 piers.

tknapp@lnpnews.com