Bartram Covered Bridge: Spanning History. George D. Conn

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was Eli Lewis, owner of the land on the Newtown side of Crum Creek, and Israel Bartram, the owner of the land on the Willistown side of Crum Creek. Lewis and Bartram submitted a combined bid of $1,400.

      Mordecai T. Bartram, the 17 year old son of Israel Bartram, recorded in his diary, dated May 10, 1860, the following:

      “To-day is wet. Vandalier Eachus came up and went to West Chester

      along with father and Eli Lewis – he being one of the commissioners from

      Delaware County and was going to West Chester to meet the rest of the

      commissioners for the purchase of letting the bridge out to contractor.

      Father and Eli put in 14 hundred but did not get it as one by the name of

      Wood only put in $1,133.00 and as he is a reliable man he gets the bid”

      The Bridge is Built

      Ferdinand Wood built Bartram Bridge between May and September, 1860. From portal to portal the bridge was 60 feet in length. Ten foot wingwalls on each side brought the over-all length to 80 feet. The bridge had a width of 13 feet. It is often written that the original specifications required Wood to build the bridge as “hi and wide as a load of hay.” To support and strengthen the bridge, Wood used a Burr Arch truss.

      We don’t know many of the details of the actual construction. However, it is fairly certain that the wood, stone and other materials, along with the labor, were all locally provided. Local materials and labor were the common practice. The use of local lumber in the construction of Bartram Bridge would seem to be confirmed by Israel Bartram’s granddaughter, Anna. In his book, Pictorial History of Chester County Covered Bridges, Spencer Windle cites Anna as saying that “tall trees stood in Israel and Maryann Bartram’s woods” and that “a sawmill on the farm would make strong beams and boards for a bridge.”

      Another Bartram relative, M. Thomas Bartram, in a letter written to the Bartram Bridge Joint Board, in June of 1994, offered the following insight concerning the construction lumber:

      “Israel bid on the bridge but lost by about $100 - however much of the timbers were cut from his land, so possibly he made out OK!!”

      We also know that, in that same year of 1860, Ferdinand Wood was building another covered bridge in northern Maryland. We can speculate that Wood was busy traveling back-and-forth as he directed the construction at both sites. He most likely had a foreman and a number of workers at each site.

      An article that appeared in the Philadelphia Bulletin on May 2, 1938, included interesting information about covered bridges. Two items mentioned are useful at this point. They give a little insight on the cost of things in that time period as they pertained to the building of a covered bridge. Although the writer is most likely referring to costs in the era of 1830, things really hadn’t changed that much by 1860. Here are two short excerpts from the article:

      “Itemized records in one case showed that the foreman got $1 a day and

      the carpenters 50 cents. Lumber, frequently obtained in proximity to the

      bridge site, was cheap, and on the $1,150 bridge amounted to only $300.

      Foundation preparation is one of the expensive items today, but when

      the covered bridges were going up, a single foundation often cost no more

      than $15, representing about two weeks of work for two men.”

      Having received the contract to build the bridge in early May, 1860, Wood completed the bridge by early September. On September 19, 1860, it was reported to the Chester County Court of Quarter Sessions that the bridge was completed and ready to be inspected.

      What a different time this is! Bartram Bridge today could cost a million dollars to build and the process could take years. Ferdinand Wood erected the bridge for $1,133 and did it in approximately 4 months.

      The Final Legal Steps

      On that same day, September 19^th, the Chester County Court of Quarter Sessions appointed “three respected citizens” to inspect the construction of the bridge. The Court in Delaware County would do the same. The six man committee, after inspecting the bridge, would report back to their respective Courts.

      On November 15, 1860, the committee, following their inspection, reported to the Court of Quarter Sessions. They stated that the bridge was not constructed according to the “specifications and agreement.” They recommended that seventy-five dollars be subtracted from the contract price and that Ferdinand Wood should receive $1,058 as full payment for building the bridge.

      The financial settlement was all that remained. On December 11^th the Chester County Commissioners requested a meeting with the Delaware County Commissioners. And, on December 20^th, 1860, the Chester County Commissioners went to Delaware County. The two counties made final settlement, with each county paying Ferdinand Wood half of the amount.

      How Much Money was Ferdinand Wood Paid?

      The lingering question remains as to exactly what was the settlement amount. It would be expected that the recommendation of the inspection committee would be followed. However, all records and writings refer to the original agreed upon amount, $1,133, as being the cost of the bridge construction.

      The “Other” Bartram Covered Bridge

      Although Bartram Bridge is the only covered bridge left in Delaware County, it was, at one time, one of about three dozen such structures in the county. Due mainly to the rapid urbanization of the county as a close suburb of Philadelphia, most of Delaware County’s covered bridges were replaced in the 1920s. The rest were removed in the 1930s. When the Llewellyn Bridge in Aston, PA was replaced in 1939, Bartram Bridge stood as the lone covered bridge in the county.

      However, few people realize that one of Delaware County’s other covered bridges was also named Bartram Bridge. It carried Providence Road over the Crum Creek just west of the current dam. It was a Burr arch truss bridge that measured approximately 70 feet in length. Located on the border between Marple and Upper Providence Townships, that Bartram Bridge was replaced sometime before 1931. Around 1931 the area where the bridge was located was flooded and is now under Springton Reservoir. Thomas Kipphorn, a noted expert on covered bridges, believes that the bridge had probably been replaced by the time the area was flooded.

      Although the two bridges had the same name, they were quite different in design. The photo above, originally taken in the 1920s or 1930s by James Rathmell, shows two distinctive features of the “other” Bartram Bridge. Unlike the remaining Bartram Bridge with its two small windows centered on each side, the “other” Bartram Bridge had windows that ran the full length of the bridge. The portals, too, are quite different, with the “other” Bartram

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