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Covered Bridges of the Upper Fishingcreek Valley
Please note that the report referenced above for the Twin Covered Bridges was written about a year ago and is not current, but can still be used for reference. See below for current details of the Twin Covered Bridges and the West Paden bridge.
During the No-Name Storm of June 28, 2006, three covered bridges were affected by the raging waters of Huntington Creek.
• One of the three covered bridges had been privately owned since 1921 and was located in Luzerne County. The bridge was owned by Emily "Freddie" Bittenbender, and was located at 176 Waterton Road, south of Huntington Mills off LR 40076, Huntington Township. A Press Enterprise article says it swept downstream about 2 AM during the height of the storm.
The bridge, built in 1888, is designated as PA/38-40-01, and is known as Bittenbender's Bridge. It was a 75-foot long single span Queenpost Truss located at 41.180N / -76.224W // 41° 10' 49"N / -76° 13' 28"W. The last Luzerne county-owned bridge was destroyed in 1955.
Read about the final hours of Bittenbender's Bridge here.
• The second covered bridge to be affected by the storm was the Josiah Hess Bridge.
• The third covered bridge was the West Paden, part of the famous Twin Bridges of Columbia County.
Up in Sullivan County, the Sonestown Covered Bridge made it through the storm in good shape, with the creek riding about a foot below the platform of the bridge.
| America's first covered bridge spanned the Schuylkill river at Philadelphia and proved the value of protecting the wooden structures from the elements. The construction work on a three-span 550 foot arch truss bridge worried a man by the name of Judge Richard Peters, who headed a stock company that financed the construction of the span. The Judge wanted to assure as long a life as possible and wanted to "weather board" the sides and roof the top of the bridge. The bridge maker's experience was that painting the joints and applying turpentine or oiling the timbers had little effect on preserving beyond a 10- to 12-year life. But the bridge life could be tripled by enclosing and covering the new covered bridge and that concept became the forerunner of thousands of covered bridges eventually constructed in this country. |
Terms that Apply to Covered Bridges
| Abutment | the structure that supports the end of the bridge or accepts the thrust of the Burr arch and supports and retains the bridge approach | |
| Approach | the road surface leading into the bridge | |
| Bolster beam | a timber between the abutement and truss which extends beyond the abutement. Commonly found in Town truss | |
| Camber | a built in, upward curve of the bridge | |
| Chord | the horizontal members, upper and lower, of a truss system extending from end to end | |
| Deck | the surface of the bridge that carries the traffic | |
| Floor beam | a transverse member between the trusses that supports the decking and live load | |
| Gabion | a galvanized wire box filled with stones used to form retaining walls along a stream or bridge | |
| Parapet | a wall rising above the road level, usually as an upward extension of the wingwall | |
| Pier | structure(s) located between the abutements to support a multi-span bridge. Additional support to an existing span. It may be original or added later | |
| Portal | the opening at either end of a bridge, the face of that opening | |
| Post | a vertical member which is perpendicular or near perpendicular to the bottom chord | |
| Runners | lengthwise planks laid over crosswise planks in the tire track area of the bridge deck, probably added sometime after the invention of the automobile to reduce noise from the loose planks | |
| Span | the horizontal distance between two supports of the bridge
tunnel |
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| Tree nail | a wooden peg, usually oak, used to fasten timbers in bridge building, sometimes replaced with galvanized steel bolts | |
| Wingwalls | extensions of the abutement which contain the fill of the approach | |
| All Terminology information listed above comes from the book "Pennsylvania's Covered Bridges, A Complete Guide" by Benjamin D. Evans and June R. Evans |
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