Most People Have No Idea There’s An Underwater Ghost Town Hiding In America’s Heartland

The town of Somerfield, Pennsylvania was once a normal rural community laid out in about 1816 by Philip Smyth, who the town was originally named after as Smythfield. The name was changed because a town already existed named Smythfield. In the 1940s, the U.S. government bought the land, and the entire town was abandoned with 176 people forced to move. The town was then razed and flooded as part of the construction of the Youghiogheny Dam.

Somerfield, Pennsylvania is now one of the abandoned places in the state. The destruction of Somerfield has garnered some interest over the years as this underwater ghost town is like Pennsylvania’s own Atlantis. At the end of this article, enjoy a video from YouTube channel "Stuffthats Gone," revealing the drowned city.

This photo of a map of Somerfield, Pennsylvania in Somerset County, was taken in 1860 by Edward L. Walker. The town only had two streets: Bridge Street and River Road.

When the water is low, the outline of the streets where the businesses were located is visible along with some tree stumps.

The video shows old foundations, roads, and objects that have been underwater for years. In its heyday, many towns and hotels were built providing stops for stagecoaches.

It is easy to imagine what life must have been like all those years ago, before the destruction of Somerfield. Some people say one house remains, a two-story frame structure on a hill above town.

And every once in a while, the water level in the dam becomes low enough to expose something really special: part of the original 1818 Somerfield bridge.

The stone Great Crossings Bridge of the National Road, which crossed the Youghiogheny at Somerfield, is a triple-arch sandstone bridge built between 1815 and 1818 by James Beck, James Kinkead, and Evan Evans. The 40-foot-high, 30-foot-wide bridge spanned 375 feet made of locally-quarried sandstone and helped the town grow.

This phenomenon is extremely rare. Not many people have spotted this bridge since the town was drowned.

Here is the finished product of Youghiogheny Lake and Dam on the Youghiogheny River — near Confluence, Pennsylvania. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the dam for flood control.

The river and dam span the border between Somerset and Fayette counties.

For more information, check out the footage below.

It's such a shame that an entire town had to be flooded to make way for the Youghiogheny Dam. Did you know about the destruction of Somerfield? If so, share your story in the comments below.