The Quarry Garden bridge offers several perspectives on a beautiful space.
A walk across the Quarry Garden bridge offers one of the most interesting and beautiful perspectives at Winterthur, an overhead view of a charming, unique area.
“We don’t have too many garden areas at Winterthur where you have a bird’s eye view into it and then you can also walk within it and then see it from down below,” says garden curator Carol Long. “When you’re within the bog, the bridge also serves as a focal point, framing the views to the distant field and woodland. It’s substantial yet you can see through it.”
The garden was one of the last areas H.F. du Pont designed for his magnificent estate. Beginning in 1961, he trucked in large rocks from a quarry in nearby Avondale, Pennsylvania, installed them as steps, benches, and terraced walkways in his own abandoned quarry at the base of Oak and Sycamore Hills, then planted primroses galore.
The various primroses seemed ideal for the boggy bottom of the bowl-like space. Fed by three springs, the area stayed moist throughout the year. The springs converged in a small rill that tumbles downhill over a series of weirs before spilling into a large pond.
Over the garden, du Pont installed a footbridge, a curving 100-foot span above the wetland that offers a range of views. From the deck, one can see open vistas. From below, one can see intimate views of the garden. Facing outward at the top of the bridge, one can see views of the pond and landscape beyond.
Things change, of course. Tree loss over time admitted more light, which changed conditions for the plantings. Some varieties of primrose, now perennialized, remain. The garden today is known for summer color from a theater of iris, foamflower, cardinal flower, lobelia, and more. Things seem to bloom from every nook and cranny.
“But it also has an amazing early spring component,” Long notes. “When we think about bulb displays at Winterthur, the March Bank comes to mind, but the Quarry Garden also has an impressive blue phase of glory of the snow with pockets of daffodils. Later in spring, you can see the combination of the primula in the bog and redbud flowers in bloom up on the surrounding Sycamore Hill. So it has that spring component in addition to all that summer color.”
All of that beauty is on an intimate scale that most people can relate to. “Many of Winterthur’s garden areas span several acres and cannot be seen from one vantage point,” Long notes. “Not many of us can relate to gardens of that scale. But we can relate to something the size of the Quarry Garden, especially when viewing the bog from the bridge. We see the garden in its totality. Aesthetically, it’s very, very pretty and can be seen from many different angles.”
The bridge, however, “is in pretty bad shape,” Long says. “It gets a lot of use, especially from our Members and our daily walkers.” The surface is deteriorating, so it needs to be redone, and other repairs will soon become necessary. The bridge remains a unique feature of the Winterthur landscape, which we’d like to maintain for future generations.
Would you like to contribute to the restoration of the Quarry Bridge? Your support will help ensure that the Quarry Bridge remains as H.F. du Pont imagined for the thousands of visitors who enjoy the Quarry Garden each year.