those living nearby, covered bridges were considered simply old, obsolete, and “dangerous.”
While New Englanders generally valued their covered bridges as links to the past, elsewhere many people viewed them negatively. “Progressive” county officials pledged to replace them with nondescript, generic concrete and steel bridges fit for the modern times. In some areas, where officials were slow to discard the old bridges, local citizens forced the process by burning bridges. Although arson is a felony crime, relatively few of the culprits were caught, often on account of local politics where who you are trumps what you did. Throughout this time, floods, ice, windstorms, and other natural calamities also took a heavy toll, as they had been doing since the advent of bridge building. However, whereas in the nineteenth century when a bridge was lost to nature and would likely be replaced with a similar bridge, by this time the replacements were always modern.
Built in 1877 in Coshocton County, Ohio, the Mohawk Creek Bridge survived into the 1930s. Here, an early car emerges from the bridge. (Terry E. Miller Collection)
Groveton, New Hampshire (Coös County) prospered until its paper mill closed in 2008, and its bridge is now the town’s main attraction. Built in 1852 by Captain Charles Richardson using the Paddleford truss, the bridge served vehicles until being bypassed in 1939. In 1964–5, Milton and Arnold Graton refurbished the bridge. (A. Chester Ong, 2010)
Daredevil workers construct a Town lattice truss for a rail crossing during the winter. Unusually high trusses were required to support the extreme weight of locomotives and rolling stock. (NSPCB Archives, R. S. Allen Collection)
In 1901, when the Sebasticook River flooded, this covered bridge crashed against a new steel rail bridge near the river’s mouth in Winslow, Maine. (NSPCB Archives, R. S. Allen Collection)
Baptists baptize by immersion and they prefer moving water. Bridge sites were convenient, and baptisms could be held year round. Here, the Rev. Robert Colborn baptizes a convert around 1910 near the Stoutsville Bridge over the mostly frozen North Fork Elk River west of Stoutsville, Missouri. The structure, a Burr truss 145 feet long, was built in 1857 and razed in 1932. (Monroe County Historical Society [Missouri])
The Romain-Caron Bridge, built in 1940 at St. Jean de la Lande in Québec’s MRC de Tèmiscouata, is typical of the province’s standardized “colonization” Town lattice design. (A. Chester Ong, 2012)
Chapter Five examines covered bridges during our present time period, the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. With the elimination of most bridges vulnerable to nature or deemed nuisances, covered bridges have become much rarer than even just thirty years ago. But, as the covered bridge became increasingly associated with notions of “a simpler past” and attained the status of nostalgic icon, a number of counties around the United States discovered that covered bridges could draw thousands of tourists for festivals, bringing economic benefits to many, especially in places like Parke County, Indiana, which otherwise have little industry or economic activity.
By now, most covered bridges are well over a hundred years old, some up to 150 years, and fewer and fewer of them are up to carrying normal traffic. Whereas in the previous period, officials “progressed” by replacing the old bridges with modern ones, in this period every effort is made to keep the bridge “in some form” while still making engineering progress. In some cases, old bridges were bypassed and then became the responsibility of a park board or other entity as they sat in splendid retirement. Sometimes, however, the land and bridge reverted to the property owner, which unfortunately sometimes led to abandonment and deterioration. In many more cases, bridges were moved into parks, sometimes over water, sometimes not.
The greatest challenge currently to covered bridge aficionados is what is denoted as “restoration” or “reconstruction.” These terms mean different things to different people. The most conservative processes involve replacement of only the “bad” timbers, but defining “bad” is the issue. Traditional timber framers seek to keep all but the worst timbers in order to preserve the historical integrity of the bridge. Many “modern” engineers find little of the old wood to be serviceable. The question then becomes, at what point has a bridge’s historical integrity been compromised—with 40 percent new timber, 60 percent, or 80 percent? In quite a few cases, engineers simply replicated the old bridge using 100 percent new materials. When replacing a bridge that had been burned or destroyed, there is no choice. But when an historic bridge that remains in serviceable condition is simply dismantled and a replacement out of whole cloth put in its place, covered bridge lovers tend to become vexed.
Chapter 6 features fifty-five exemplary covered bridges in the United States and Canada, each with photos and an essay. Some are inimitable and exceptional, others are more typical. Each has something unique to offer: a colorful story, unusual construction, a special environment, or an object lesson. They are intended as a sampling rather than a “canon” of exceptional bridges.
With its open approaches removed, the 1858 Waldo or Riddle’s Mill Bridge in Talladega County, Alabama, isolated on tall stone pier-abutments, has been inaccessible perhaps since being condemned in the 1960s. Luckily, it survived the Civil War when a Union Army unit called Wilson’s Raiders crossed in April 1865. Several attempts to refurbish the bridge and develop a park have failed. (A. Chester Ong, 2011)
chapter one
THE BIRTH OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COVERED BRIDGE
American “folk” painter Charles C. Hoffmann (c. 1820–82) painted (oil on canvas) this scene in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1872 of Henry Z. Van Reed’s farm, paper mill, and surroundings, including a covered bridge likely of Burr truss design. (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)
The longest of three remaining bridges in Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, the 186-foot-long Hillsgrove Bridge was built around 1850 by Sadler Rodgers of nearby Forksville. This splendid Burr truss span was nearly lost when floods caused by Tropical Storm Lee’s 12 inches of rain in September 2011 caused a house to strike the bridge, requiring extensive renovation. As work progresses, visitors can better see the exposed trusses. (A. Chester Ong, 2012)
UTILITARIAN CROSSINGS FOR A NEW CONTINENT
Although they are commonly called “covered bridges,” the essence of such bridges is what lies beneath and is protected by the roofing and siding. The full name would more accurately be “covered wooden trussed bridges” because the last two elements—the trusses and their material, wood—are essential. While the enveloping roof and siding are critical to the survival of a trussed wooden bridge, they no more define it than our own skin, also critical to our survival, defines us as a human being. Consequently, in order to pursue a
