Wooden spools in Bristol

An old river town

Bristol borough is one of the oldest towns in Pennsylvania, laid out on the Delaware River in the late seventeenth century. Its historic waterfront, Radcliffe Street lined with old houses facing the river, and the shops and restaurants of Mill Street give it a very different feel from the suburbs around it. Bristol Township, which surrounds the borough, is much larger and includes parts of Levittown, Croydon, Edgely and a long stretch of industrial and commercial land along US 13 and the river. The Burlington-Bristol Bridge lands here, linking the town with Burlington City in New Jersey.

Sources of reels in and around Bristol

• Historic homes. Old houses in the borough are rewired and renovated, leaving small reels and spools.
• Industry along the river. Manufacturing plants and warehouses along the Delaware and the railroad produce mid-size and large reels from maintenance and upgrades.
• Commercial strips. US 13 (Bristol Pike) is lined with businesses whose fit-outs leave reels in back lots.
• Utility and infrastructure. Work on lines, rail and roads brings large reels, occasionally returnable.

Roads and the bridge

US 13 runs along the river through Bristol Township, connecting it to Croydon and Philadelphia to the southwest and Levittown and Falls Township to the northeast. I-95 crosses the township further inland, with an exit at PA 413, which runs through the borough to the bridge. The Burlington-Bristol Bridge carries traffic to Burlington City and US 130 in New Jersey, which makes Bristol pickups easy to combine with collections in Burlington County.

Working on the waterfront

Riverfront properties often have reels that have sat in the open for years, exposed to wind and damp. Before we come, check whether the bottom rims are soft or the staves are loose. Rotten reels still come away, but they go to recycling rather than reuse. If a reel has a company name or serial number painted or stencilled on it, it may belong to someone else; photograph it and tell us.

Pickups on narrow borough streets

The borough's streets are narrow and lined with parked cars. Reels behind a house on Radcliffe Street or off Mill Street may need to come out through an alley. Tell us where they are, whether there are steps, and the best time to stop. We can usually load a few reels by hand onto a small truck.

Combining with Burlington

Because the bridge is right here, pickups in Bristol often pair with pickups across the river in Burlington City or along US 130. If you have reels on both sides, list them all in one request.

Recycling the rest

Bristol has a long industrial history, and some pickups here include old reels that are split, crushed or rotten. We take them with sound material. The wood goes to recycling, the steel to scrap. See recycling.

Grundy's mills and the canal

Bristol prospered in the nineteenth century as the southern end of the Delaware Canal, which carried coal and goods down from the Lehigh Valley, and later as a mill town. The Grundy family's textile mill, with its landmark clock tower, became a symbol of the borough, and Joseph R. Grundy went on to serve as a US senator. The canal lagoon and mill buildings still stand near the waterfront. Many of the old industrial buildings have been converted to apartments, offices or community uses, and conversions like that use a lot of new cable: every apartment needs its own panel, feeders and branch wiring, and the building needs new risers, fire alarm and lighting.

The Bristol Riverside Theatre and downtown

Mill Street, Radcliffe Street and the riverfront park host a theatre, restaurants, festivals and a marina. Venue and restaurant fit-outs produce spools and the odd mid-size reel. Event organisers sometimes ask for reels as rustic tables for outdoor seating; we can lend a hand finding suitable ones.

Rail and the Northeast Corridor

Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and SEPTA's Trenton Line run through Bristol, with a station near the borough centre. Railway electrification, signalling and station work use specialised cable on returnable drums, generally handled by railway contractors. Any one-way timber reels they release are welcome.

Older homes along the river

Houses on Radcliffe Street and the blocks behind it date back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. When they are rewired, the leftovers are modest, but sometimes an owner clearing an old carriage house or cellar finds reels left by a long-gone tradesman. Even weathered ones can be recycled.

Volunteer clean-ups

Riverfront clean-up days sometimes turn up cable drums dumped along the shoreline or in brush. Organisers can tell us where the drums were stacked afterwards, and we will collect them, rotten or not, so they do not end up back in the river.

Croydon's industrial strip

Along the railway in Croydon and Bristol Township, factories and warehouses line the tracks. Shutdown weeks, typically summer or year-end, generate concentrated batches of drums worth a single truckload.

Silver Lake and nature trails

Silver Lake Nature Center, just outside the borough, offers trails, boardwalks and wetland habitat.

Questions

Do you cover Croydon and Edgely?

Yes, along with the rest of Bristol Township and the borough.

Can you collect from a factory in Bristol Township?

Yes. Give us the gate hours and the name of the person who will release the reels.