Ambridge, Pennsylvania | region, borough

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Ambridge is a borough in Beaver County in western Pennsylvania, incorporated in 1910 and named after the American Bridge Company, which had significant operations there. Ambridge is located 16 miles (25 km) northwest of Pittsburgh, alongside the Ohio river. In 1910, 5,205 people lived in Ambridge; in 1920, 12,730 people lived there, and in 1940, 18,968 people resided in Ambridge. The population was 7,769 at the 2000 census.

The Harmony Society first settled the area in the early 1800s, founding the village of "Oekonomie" or Old Economy in 1824. Although initially successful, accumulating significant landholdings, the sect went into decline.

By the end of the nineteenth century only a few Harmonists remained. In 1905 the Society was dissolved and its vast real estate holdings sold, much of it to the American Bridge Company, who subsequently enlarged the town and renamed it Ambridge.

Ambridge had been a highly productive place at one time. The borough was widely known for bridge building, metal molding, and the manufacture of tubes (large iron pipes). During World War II, numerous small vessels such as LSTs were constructed in Ambridge by American Bridge Company. ABC ended operations in Ambridge in 1983.

Official site: www.ambridgeboro.org/