Covered bridge Totally Explained

Everything about Covered Bridge totally explained

A covered bridge is a bridge, often single-lane, with enclosed sides and a roof. They have typically been wooden, although some newer ones are concrete or metal with glass sides. Especially associated with the nineteenth century, covered bridges often serve as prominent local landmarks and have long attracted the attention of historic preservationists.

Construction details

Early bridges were made of wood, especially where it was a plentiful resource. Wooden bridges tended to deteriorate rapidly from exposure to the elements, having a useful lifespan of only nine years. Covering them protected their structural members, thus extending their life to 80 years or more. Covered bridges were also constructed to be used by travelers during storms and inclement weather.
Most wooden covered bridges employ trusses as their key structural design element. A popular design was the Brown truss, known for its simplicity, but others were also used.
Given the ready availability of steel, concrete, and other modern construction materials, most modern covered bridges are built either for the convenience of the user, rather than to protect the structure itself, or as a statement of style or design.

Covered bridges in Europe

The Western tradition of covered bridges originated in Central Europe.
Surviving or reconstructed European covered bridges include:

Ponte Coperto over the Ticino river, Pavia, Italy, built 1354
Bridge over the Muota river, Brunnen, near Lake Lucerne Switzerland
Bridge over the Saane/Sarine river, near Fribourg, Switzerland
Kapellbrücke, near Lucerne, Switzerland — 650 foot long, built 1333
Irgandı, in Osmangazi, Turkey 1367
The Covered Bridge in Lovech, Bulgaria — built 1874
Logic Lane covered bridge in Oxford, England — built 1904
Pont de Rohan over The Elorn River in Landerneau, Brittany, France. built 16th 17th century.

Famous stone covered bridges include the Rialto Bridge in Venice, Italy which is one of only three over the Canal Grande and a popular tourist attraction.
The Bridges of Sighs in Venice, Cambridge and Oxford are also covered bridges.

Covered bridges in North America

Such bridges are found in rural areas throughout the United States and Canada, but are often threatened by arsonists, vandals, and flooding. In the United States, Pennsylvania has more covered bridges (over 200) than any other state, many of which can be seen in Washington, Chester and Lancaster Counties. The U.S. state of Vermont has more covered bridges per square mile than any other place in the world, with 107 bridges located throughout the state. Oregon has the largest number of historical covered bridges in the western United States. They are also common in places such as Elizabethton, Tennessee, Lane County, Oregon, Madison County, Iowa, Parke County, Indiana, and Blount County, Alabama. Parts of California, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Virginia, West Virginia and the New England states also have surviving covered bridges.
   There are various structural designs used for covered bridges, such as the Burr Truss.
   Opened on July 4, 1901, the 1,282 foot (390 meter) Hartland Bridge, crossing the Saint John River at Hartland, New Brunswick, is currently the longest covered bridge in the world. It is a national historic site. In 1900, New Brunswick had an estimated 400 covered bridges, and Quebec more than 1000, while Ontario had only 5. As of 2006, there were 94 covered bridges still standing in Quebec, 65 in New Brunswick and at least two in Ontario.
   A much longer covered bridge (5,960 feet) between Columbia and Wrightsville, Pennsylvania once spanned the mile-wide Susquehanna River, making it the longest and most versatile covered bridge in the world during its existence. It featured railroad tracks, a towpath for canal boats crossing the river between two canals on either bank, and a carriage / wagon / pedestrian road. The popular toll bridge was burned June 28, 1863, by Union militia during the American Civil War to prevent its usage by the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the Gettysburg Campaign. A replacement wooden covered bridge was destroyed by a windstorm a few years later. It was rebuilt as an open-air steel bridge.
   As of 2006, the longest existing covered bridge in the United States is Medora Covered Bridge in Indiana, which is 458 feet in length; however, Ashtabula County, Ohio, is in the process of breaking that record. Construction is underway on a new 600-foot covered bridge, which will span the Ashtabula River near Ashtabula. The bridge should be completed before Fall 2008, and will be the 5th covered bridge built in Ashtabula County since 1983. The town of Blenheim, New York has the longest single-span covered bridge in the world (232 feet), built in 1855. The bridge crosses the Schoharie Creek in the northern Catskills.
   Covered bridges are generally considered old-fashioned, and appeal to tourists, but the purpose is twofold: (1) covered bridges appear similar to barns and it's easier to transport cattle across them without startling them, and (2) to build a structure for weather protection over the working part of the bridge. A bridge built entirely out of wood, without any protective coating, may last 10 to 15 years. Builders discovered that if the bridge's underpinnings were protected with a roof, the bridge could stand for 70, or even 80 years. The existing covered bridges have been renovated using concrete footings and steel trusses to hold additional weight and to replace the original support timbers.Some covered bridges, such as the one in Newton Falls, Ohio and Elizabethton, Tennessee, also feature an integrated covered walkway.

Covered bridges in Asia

In Asia, covered bridges are most prevalent in China, where they're called lángqiáo . There are many covered bridges, called "wind and rain bridges" in the Chinese province of Guizhou. These were traditionally built by the Dong minority people. There are also many covered bridges in the Fujian province of southern China.(External Link

) Taishun County, in southern Zhejiang province near the border of Fujian, has more than 900 covered bridges, many of them hundreds of years old, as well as a covered bridge museum.(External Link

) (External Link

) There are also a number in nearby Qingyuan County, as well as in Shouning County, in northern Fujian province.
There is a well known covered bridge in Hoi An, Vietnam (in the Quang Nam Province of Vietnam's South Central Coast), called Chùa Cầu—the Japanese Bridge (illustrated in Gallery, below).

Modern covered bridges

Modern covered bridges are usually for pedestrians, for example to walk from one part of an office building to another part, to cross railway tracks at a station, or in a shopping center on an elevated level, crossing a road. See also skyway.
Glass-walled covered bridges are rather common at American airports, and some of those bridges can be found at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City.
Also, some highway bridges, such as the George Washington Bridge, have lower decks for additional capacity, and those decks, while generally open on the sides, can be enclosed with plastic from time to time during construction, thus rendering the lower decks as partially covered bridges.

Covered bridges in fiction

North American covered bridges received much recognition as a result of the success of the novel, The Bridges of Madison County written by Robert James Waller and made into a Hollywood motion picture starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood.
   The fictional rural town portrayed in the 1988 film Beetlejuice features a covered bridge. It provides the early scene in which the protagonists (played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) are killed when their car crashes through the wall of the bridge and plunges into the river below.
   A covered bridge is featured in the 1999 film Sleepy Hollow, in a suspense-filled scene depicting an encounter between main character Ichabod Crane (played by Johnny Depp) and the main villain, The Headless Horseman (played by Christopher Walken).
   A covered bridge is used for comic effect in the Jay Cronley novel (and Chevy Chase movie,) "Funny Farm," when a fully loaded delivery truck attempts to cross a rickety covered bridge.
   In the early 20th century, covered bridges were sometimes nicknamed "kissing bridges", as the cover allowed seclusion for couples to kiss each other.

Gallery of covered bridges

Image:CoveredBridge.jpeg|Manchester, New Hampshire, circa 1880 (lost in a 1920 flood) Image:NECCoveredBridge.JPG|Henniker, New Hampshire Image:WestMontroseBridgePlaque.jpg|An Ontario historical plaque honors the West Montrose covered bridge. Image:Covered Bridge Jackson NH.JPG|Jackson, New Hampshire Image:Burt_Henry_Covered_Bridge.jpg|Burt Henry Covered Bridge, Bennington, Vermont Image:E Fairfield_Sept2007.JPG|East Fairfield Covered Bridge, Franklin County, Vermont Image:Potters Bridge.jpg|Noblesville, Indiana Image:Brown-County-Szmurlo.jpg|Ramp Creek Covered Bridge, Brown County State Park, Indiana Image:Wheeling Bridge.jpg|Wheeling Bridge in Wheeling, Gibson County, Indiana Image:Bridge of Sighs, Cambridge.JPG|Bridge of Sighs (Cambridge) Image:Switzerland Lucerne.jpg|Kapellbrücke Image:Pont couvert (Routhierville).jpg|Routhierville, Quebec Image:NGruev.Lovech.CoveredBridge.jpg|The Covered Bridge in Lovech, Bulgaria Image:Pepperell_covered_bridge.jpg|Pepperell, Massachusetts Image:WintersetIAPark1.JPG|Winterset City Park, Madison County, Iowa Image:SchofieldFordCoveredBridge.jpg|Schofield Ford Covered Bridge, Bucks County, Pennsylvania Image:Baumgardener's Covered Bridge Side View 3008px.JPG|Baumgardener's Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Bitzer's Mill Covered Bridge Side 3008px.jpg|Bitzer's Mill Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Bucher's Mill Covered Bridge Full Side 3008px.jpg|Bucher's Mill Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Colemanville Covered Bridge Full Side View 3008px.jpg|Colemanville Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Euharlee_Covered_Bridge.jpg|Euharlee Covered Bridge, Bartow County, Georgia Image:Erb's Covered Bridge Side View 3000px.jpg|Erb's Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Forry's Mill Covered Bridge Wide Angle Side View 3000px.jpg|Forry's Mill Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Herr's Mill Covered Bridge Side View 2696px.jpg|Herr's Mill Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:HunsickerMillBridge.jpg|Hunsecker's Mill Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Jackson's Sawmill Covered Bridge Wide Side View 3000px.jpg|Jackson's Sawmill Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Kauffman's Distillery Covered Bridge Side View 3000px.jpg|Kauffman's Distillery Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Kellers Mill Covered Bridge Side View 3000px.jpg|Keller's Mill Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Kurtz's Mill Covered Bridge Side View 3008px.jpg|Kurtz's Mill Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Landis Mill Covered Bridge Side View 3264px.jpg|Landis Mill Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Leaman's Place Covered Bridge Side View 3000px.jpg|Leaman's Place Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Lime Valley Covered Bridge Side View 3000px.jpg|Lime Valley Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Mercer's Mill Covered Bridge 2600px.jpg|Mercer's Mill Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Neff's Mill Covered Bridge Side View 3000px.jpg|Neff's Mill Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Pine Grove Covered Bridge Wide Side View 3000px.jpg|Pine Grove Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Pinetown Bushong's Mill Covered Bridge Side View 3000px.jpg|Pinetown Bushong's Mill Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Pool Forge Covered Bridge Three Quarters View 3008px.jpg|Pool Forge Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Red Run Covered Bridge 3000px.jpg|Red Run Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Schenck's Mill Covered Bridge Side View 3000px.jpg|Schenck's Mill Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Shearer's Covered Bridge Side View 3000px.jpg|Shearer's Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Siegrist's Mill Covered Bridge 2600px.jpg|Siegrist's Mill Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Weaver's Mill Covered Bridge Three Quarters View 3008px.jpg|Weaver's Mill Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:White Rock Forge Covered Bridge Side View 3000px.jpg|White Rock Forge Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Willow Hill Covered Bridge Side View 3000px.jpg|Willow Hill Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:Zook's Mill Covered Bridge Side View 3000px.jpg|Zook's Mill Covered Bridge, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Image:ZumbrotacoveredbridgeSM.jpg|Zumbro Bridge Park in Goodhue County, Zumbrota, Minnesota Image:Harpersfield_(Ohio)_Covered_Bridge_-_1.jpg|Harpersfield Covered Bridge, Ashtabula County, Ohio Image:State_Road_(Ashtabula_County,_Ohio)_Covered_Bridge_1.jpg|State Road Covered Bridge, Ashtabula County, Ohio Image:Netcher Road (Ashtabula County, Ohio) Covered Bridge 1.jpg|Netcher Road Covered Bridge, Ashtabula County, Ohio Image:Windsor Mills (Ashtabula County, Ohio) Covered Bridge 1.jpg|Windsor Mills (Wiswell Road) Covered Bridge, Ashtabula County, Ohio Image:Chua Cau Hoi An.jpg|Japanese Bridge, Hoi An, Viet Nam Image:Japanese Bridge Hoi An.jpg|Inside the Japanese Bridge, Hoi An

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