By Terry E. Miller, Ronald G. Knapp, A. Chester Ong
As many as 15,000 lined bridges have been in-built North the US during the last 2 hundred years. Fewer than 1,000 remain.
In America's coated Bridges, authors Terry E. Miller and Ronald G. Knapp inform the attention-grabbing tale of those bridges, how they have been outfitted, the technological breakthroughs required to build them and exceptionally the commitment and talent in their developers. every one wood bridge, no matter if nonetheless status or gone, has a narrative to inform concerning the nature of the US on the time—not in simple terms approximately its transportational wishes, however the availability of fabrics and the technological prowess of the folks who equipped it.
North American lined bridges have been marvels of engineering lengthy ahead of glossy civil engineering used to be invented. Early American bridge developers built progressive new carpentry the right way to subscribe to timbers into styles including triangles or non-stop arches that ended in constructions inflexible sufficient to span lengthy distances. referred to as trusses, those structures have been severe to bridge development of the day and needed to be protected against the weather via a roof and siding. Few buyers observe that bridges have been lined to guard the trusses—not the folks utilizing the bridge! Unprotected, the trusses quickly degraded and the bridge could collapse.
Illustrated with a few 550 old and modern pictures, work, and technical drawings of approximately four hundred varied lined bridges, America's lined Bridges deals 5 readable chapters at the historical past, layout and destiny of America's coated bridges, plus similar bridges in Canada. many of the modern images is through grasp photographer A. Chester Ong of Hong Kong.
55 picture essays at the so much iconic bridges closing, including:
- Cornish-Windsor Bridge among Vermont and New Hampshire
- Porter-Parsonsfield Bridge, Maine
- East Paden and West Paden (Twin Bridges), Pennsylvania
- Philippi Bridge, West Virginia
- Hortons Mill Bridge, Alabama
- Medora Bridge, Indiana
- Rock Mill Bridge, Ohio
- Knight's Ferry Bridge, California
- Perrault Bridge, Quebec, Canada
- Hartland Bridge, New Brunswick, Canada
Among the featured bridges are that have been destroyed prior to the booklet may be released, New York's Blenheim Bridge in the course of a hurricane and Ohio's Humpback Bridge by means of arson. The everlasting Bridge in Philadelphia, thought of via such a lot because the first lined bridge in the United States, figures prominently, as do the bridges of Lancaster County—heart of Pennsylvania Dutch nation. This compendium of vintage Americana comprises a few of the so much amazing and iconic bridges ever inbuilt the us, together with these through Timothy Palmer, Theodore Burr and Lewis Wernwag. a few, just like the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge over the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, have been a mile long.
Over time, wood bridges ultimately gave strategy to ones made from iron, metal and urban. An American icon, many coated bridges grew to become out of date and have been replaced—others easily decayed and collapsed. Many extra have been swept away via traditional failures and fires. America's lined Bridges is de facto choked with attention-grabbing tales and data passionately informed by way of major specialists in this topic. The e-book can be of great curiosity to a person drawn to American heritage, carpentry and technological swap.
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Additional resources for America's Covered Bridges: Practical Crossings - Nostalgic Icons
For many states the place such bridges all started early and have been in-built great quantity, the quantity is within the 2–8 percentage diversity. Lewis Wernwag’s dependent bridge over the Kentucky River at Camp Nelson in Jessamine County, Kentucky, carried the Lexington street while it used to be inbuilt 1838 at a price of $30,000. A double-lane span 240 toes lengthy, it persevered to hold US 27 until eventually a truck broke in the course of the ground in 1926, however the bridge remained till 1933. The Union military verified Camp Nelson in 1863 as a depot to provide its forces in Kentucky and Tennessee. (Wells, 1931: seventy seven) Hawaii’s few coated bridges, all long gone now, weren't particularly reminiscent of these at the mainland. This open-sided kingpost bridge, it appears going uphill close to Hilo, photographed round 1880 could have been a footbridge. (Hawaii nation records) Alaska had maybe a dozen or so bridges, the entire Western Howe layout outfitted after 1900. those “twin bridges” have been at the Seward-Anchorage street in south primary Alaska and have been got rid of earlier than 1959. (Alaska country Library) Spanning Salt Creek on the north front to Indiana’s Brown County kingdom Park, the Ramp Creek Bridge was once initially inbuilt 1838 simply south of Fincastle in Putnam County on what grew to become US 231. This bridge, outfitted by means of Henry Wolf and Chilion Johnson, is either Indiana’s oldest and its merely “double-barrel” bridge. It used to be moved the following in 1932. (A. Chester Ong, 2011) This old picture taken within the early 1870s exhibits Obadiah Wilcox’s 1813 road bridge over the Sacandaga River close to Hadley in Saratoga County, long island. at the back of it's a four-span open deck Howe truss bridge wearing the Adirondack Railroad’s first engine, the final MacPherson. The rail bridge was once inbuilt 1870 yet by means of 1905 all spans have been changed. (NSPCB data, R. S. Allen assortment) utilizing a mixture open submit truss, this rail bridge over transparent Creek in Colorado’s transparent Creek Canyon used to be most likely outfitted to serve the state’s gold rush, which all started in 1859. the road ultimately grew to become the Colorado principal Railroad. (NSPCB records, R. S. Allen assortment) lined bridges in Canada have been usually in-built New Brunswick and Québec. the place Québec begun construction such bridges within the 1850s and has 1,035 documented crossings, of which 86 live to tell the tale, and New Brunswick had 454, all equipped after 1900, with sixty three surviving, Ontario had in basic terms eleven, with 1 surviving at the present time. Oddly, Nova Scotia is credited with thirteen, with the earliest going again to 1835, yet none live on. a ways to the west there have been might be 6 wood rail bridges, a few lined or partly lined, and 1 semi-covered span survives to this present day in British Columbia. this present day, there are 151 covered/semi-covered bridges indexed for Canada out of a historic overall of 1,519, or 10 percentage. The Boston and Maine Railroad equipped and owned many of the lined rail bridges in New England. This one at Bennington, New Hampshire, used to be in-built 1877, most likely by means of David Hazelton (1832–1908), leader bridge engineer for the railroad. until eventually it was once destroyed through hearth in 1965, it used to be the oldest last coated rail bridge within the usa.