COLUMBIA, Pa. — Thanks to a sponsorship from a local foundation, this year’s Riverfest will light up the skies over the Susquehanna River this summer.
The event commemorates the 1863 burning of the Columbia-Wrightsville Covered Bridge days before the Battle of Gettysburg. The bridge was set ablaze by Union troops and local volunteers to prevent Confederate troops, led by Gen. Jubal Early, from crossing the river and advancing into Lancaster County.
Denied a means of crossing the river thanks to the fire, Early led his troops west. Three days later, they were engaged with Union forces in Gettysburg…