Our Covered Bridges
Brown County State Park bridge.
~ by Julia Pearson
A covered bridge is one feature of by-gone America that inspires the warm sentimentality of the dreamer in all of us.
Brenda Krekler’ s book, Covered Bridges Today, says that as many as 12,000 covered bridges once existed in the United States. That number dropped to under 1,500 by the 1950s. In response to this drastic loss, the National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges was formed in 1950. According to a study of the National Historic Covered Bridge Preservation Program administered by the Federal Highway Administration, the number of covered bridges in existence today is currently somewhere between 700 to 900 structures.
The first covered bridges in this country appeared in the early 1800s in the Eastern states, and until the early 1900s were constructed across the United States. They had timber trusses into the mid-1800s when the development of cheaper wrought iron and cast iron led to metal trusses, except where plentiful large timber was available. The covered bridges were built as a functional passageway for a community and often reflected the individual builders and architectural style of a specific time and place.
Many historians believe bridges were covered for practical and functional reasons. By covering the heavy trusses from direct exposure to the elements of sun and rain, the life expectancy of the bridge could
Bean Blossom covered bridge.
be extended. Records prove that covered bridges would last up to three times longer than a noncovered bridge of similar size. Even though the roof and sidings would need to be replaced every couple decades, this was still more economical than complete replacement of the structure. The romantic lore of these bridges holds that having
32 Our Brown County Jan./ Feb. 2016