Welcome to the Pennsylvania Covered Bridge web site, we are dedicated to the preservation and restoration of all remaining covered bridges through out the United States. Nearly 14000 authentic wooden covered bridges once existed in our Nation. Today less than 900 remain. Time and technology took its toll on the bridges until recent years when Federal grants came available for states to restore and rebuild many of the historic structures. Many of covered bridges are being destroyed by Mother Nature and at the hands of arsonist plus those that were on the verge of collapse.

Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Vermont have a combined total of over 550 authentic covered bridges with Pennsylvania leading with over 197. Many of the covered bridges still standing are over 150 years old.

The historic data given here is as accurate as I could find through out my researching the bridges. Finding correct information about covered bridges is a never-ending process. There will always be conflicting documentation regarding year built, builder, length of bridge, truss type and even the waterway it crosses.

I do hope everyone will appreciate the historical value that these bridges represent for the state of Pennsylvania and through out the United States.

Please feel free to contact us at anytime for directions to any of these fine structures. We have traveled many back roads armed with Pennsylvania Road Atlas, County maps and directions documented in books written about the bridges, and we still got lost on occasions. They say that getting lost out in the back country is half the fun looking for these bridges, I feel when you are dealing with light to get a good photograph you need to be there at a specific time. My advice to anyone who is interested in photographing these beautiful historic bridges and finding them in less time should invest in a GPS unit, I can say after using one in three different counties that they are the greatest thing that came down the pike. Many sites on the net have coordinates for each of the bridges and nothing can be more simple.

Bridge Information

If anyone has any information about restorations or destructions of any of the covered bridges in Pennsylvania please email me.

I will accept photos from any person of any covered bridges that are not displayed here. I would also like to have any up dated photos of any of the bridges I have on my site. I will give credit to the individual if I use the photo. Please send photos in 8X10, jpeg and 150 resolutions.

Bridges Destroyed:

1. Bittenbender (Luzerne County) This bridge has also been washed out by the same flood that destroyed the West Paden Bridge in Columbia County. No information on restoration.

2. Gudgeonville (Erie County) Tragedy falls on another one of our historical structures.
(Click here to read articles and view photos) Information indicates that there are no plans to restore this bridge.

3. Sonestown Covered Bridge, Sullivan County has been closed. Due to a severe storm last fall, Sonestown bridge suffered damage to the road that crosses the bridge. Much of the pavement has been washed away or sunk which makes traveling it quite dangerous and impossible. I will try to keep an update on the bridge.

3. L.C. Beavan (Susquehanna County) Needs help
(Click here for information)

Bridges Restored:

Red Bridge near Millmont, Pa. to be reconstructed.
(Photos and story click here)

1. Shoemaker (Columbia County) This bridge has been restored August 2008.
2. West Paden (Columbia County)
3. Pomeroy/Academia, (Juniata County) "Completed 2008"
4.Kramer (Columbia County)
5. Books (Perry County)
6. Everhart (Dauphin County) This bridge had originally been built in 1881 and in 1940 was moved to Fort Hunter. The structure was then dismantled in 1980 and put in storage. June 2006 it had been reconstructed at Fort Hunter Park in Harrisburg, Pa.
7. Saville (Perry County)
8. Bistline (Perry County)
9. Adairs (Perry County)

Note: The new bridge photos can be seen in their individual photo albums of their county.

Pennsylvania Covered Bridges on Flickr

Len Sherlinski's Photostream on Flickr

Calendar of Events

Wright Covered Bridge Washington County

Visit Washington County Pennsylvania - 2010 Covered Bridge Guide
Washington and Green Counties Covered Bridge Festival and tour

Kramer Covered Bridge Columbia County

Visitor Information: Covered Bridges - Columbia Montour Visitors Bureau
Columbia County Festival and tour 8, 9. 10 October 2010 Knoebels Grove

Charles Newbaker - Gatekeeper of the Poconos

For 38 years, Charles J. Newbaker Sr. worked at thePortland-Columbia Covered Bridge – the original gateway crossing to Pennsylvania’s Pocono vacation the span operated as a privately owned toll bridge. He was the first bridge guard when it became publicly owned and was freed of tolls in 1927. He carried on when the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission assumed the bridge’s operations in 1934, becoming one of the agency’s first employees. He was unofficial chief carpenter, historian and protector – once stopping first-lady Eleanor Roosevelt for speeding on the bridge. He was the last man to walk across the structure before it was washed away by the historic flood of August 1955 -- the longest remaining covered bridge in America at that time. See photographs, old documents, news articles and other interesting items about this bridge and the man who zealously worked to keep it functioning in the face of the automobile age’s rising traffic demands.

A Special Display: A Man and His Bridge

Slate Belt Museum

2214 North Delaware Drive

Mount Bethel, Pennsylvania 18343

1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays & Sundays

Through September 26

Admission is Free

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/slate-belt/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/128124032183500.xml&coll=3

Email

(Comments on this site are welcome and appreciated.)

All photographs have been taken by Len Sherlinski unless otherwise indicated.