Forksville Covered Bridge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Forksville Covered Bridge | |
| National Register of Historic Places | |
 The Forksville Covered Bridge over Loyalsock Creek
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| Official name: Forksville Covered Bridge | |
| Named for: Forksville | |
| Country |  United States |
|---|---|
| State |  Pennsylvania |
| County | Sullivan |
| Borough | Forksville |
| Road | State Route 4012 (single lane) |
| Crosses | Loyalsock Creek |
| Elevation | 1,010 ft (308 m) |
| Coordinates | [1] |
| Length | 152.9 ft (47 m) [2] |
| Width | 15.0 ft (4.6 m) [3] |
| Clearance | 8.0 ft (2.4 m) |
| Builder | Sadler Rodgers |
| Design | Burr Arch Truss Bridge |
| Material | Wood |
| Built | 1850 |
| - Restored | 1970, 2004 |
| Owned and Maintained by | Pennsylvania, PennDOT |
| NBI Number | 564012001000500 [2] |
| WGCB Number | 38-57-01 [4]< |
| Load | 3 tons (2.7 t) |
| Added to NRHP | July 24, 1980 |
| NRHP Ref# | 80003639 |
  Location of the Forksville Covered Bridge in Pennsylvania
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The Forksville Covered Bridge is a 152.9-foot (46.6 m) long Burr arch truss covered bridge over Loyalsock Creek in the borough of Forksville, Sullivan County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It was built in 1850 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The bridge is named for the borough it is in, which is named for its location at the confluence or "forks" of the Little Loyalsock and Loyalsock Creeks.
The bridge was restored in 1970 and 2004 and is still in use, with average daily traffic of 217 vehicles in 2006. It is one of the three covered bridges remaining in Sullivan County. Despite the restorations, as of 2006 the bridge structure's sufficiency rating on the National Bridge Inventory was only 17.4 percent and its condition was deemed "[b]asically intolerable requiring high priority of corrective action".[2] According to Susan M. Zacher's The Covered Bridges of Pennsylvania: A Guide the bridge's location "over the rocky Loyalsock Creek" is "one of the most attractive settings in the state."[5]
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[edit] Name
The covered bridge is in the borough of Forksville just west of Pennsylvania Route 154 on Bridge Street, which is also a spur of State Route 4012. It is approximately 0.2 miles (0.3 km) south of Pennsylvania Route 87 and 2.0 miles (3.2 km) north of Worlds End State Park on PA 154.[6][7] Its official name on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is "Forksville Covered Bridge".[3][8] The bridge is just upstream of the confluence or "forks" of the Little Loyalsock and Loyalsock Creeks. These gave Forks Township its name when it was incorporated in 1833, while still part of Lycoming County. Sullivan County was formed on March 14, 1847 from part of Lycoming County and the bridge was built in 1850. The name of the bridge comes from the borough of Forksville, which was incorporated on December 22, 1880 from Forks Township.[9][10]
[edit] History
[edit] Background
The first covered bridge in the United States was built over the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1800. Some of the first Burr arch truss covered bridges were also built in the state. Pennsylvania is estimated to have once had at least 1,500 covered bridges, and is believed to have had the most in the country between 1830 and 1875.[11] In 2001 Pennsylvania had more surviving historic covered bridges than any other state, with 221 remaining in 40 of the commonwealth's 67 counties.[6]
Covered bridges were a transition between stone and cast-iron and steel bridges. In 19th-century Pennsylvania, lumber was an abundant resource for bridge construction,[11] but did not last long when exposed to weather and the elements. The roof and enclosed sides of covered bridges protected the structural elements, allowing some of these bridges to survive well over a century. A Burr arch truss consists of a load-bearing arch sandwiching multiple King posts, resulting in a bridge which is both stronger and more rigid than one built using either element alone.[6]
[edit] Construction and description
The Forksville Covered Bridge was built in 1850 by Sadler Rodgers, who also built the similar Hillsgrove Covered Bridge. Both of these are Burr arch truss covered bridges across Loyalsock Creek in Sullivan County, with the Hillsgrove bridge downstream of the Forksville bridge. Although there were 30 covered bridges in Sullivan County in 1890, as of 2008 there are only three left, all built in 1850: Forksville, Hillsgrove, and the Sonestown Covered Bridge.[3][6]
The Forksville Covered Bridge was added to the NRHP in 1980 and was listed on the 2006 National Bridge Inventory (NBI). According to the NBI, the covered bridge is 152.9 feet (46.6 m) long, with a roadway 12.1 feet (3.7 m) wide, and a maximum load of 3.0 short tons (2.7 MT).[2] According to the NRHP, the bridge's "road surface width" is 15 feet (4.6 m),[3] which is only sufficient for a single lane of traffic.[2] As of 2008, the clearance height posted on the bridge is 8.0 feet (2.4 m) and a "No Trucks Allowed" hangs above each entrance.
The covered bridge rests on the original stone abutments, which have since been reinforced with concrete.[3] The bridge deck is made of "very narrow crosswise planks",[6] and the sides are covered with vertical planks almost to the eaves.[3] The bridge has long, narrow windows with wooden shutters: the north side of the bridge has three windows and the south side has four. There is also an opening below the eaves that runs the length of the bridge on both sides.[6] The bridge has a Burr arch truss of 16 panels, with wooden beams and wheel gaurds.[3] The gable roof is sheet metal,[6][5] and is used as the model illustration of a covered bridge's gable roof by the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center.[12]
[edit] Restoration and use
From 1908 to 1913 there was a stream gauge on the bridge. Twice a day, the creek height was read on a 21.88-foot (6.67 m) long chain on the bridge's upstream side, and discharge measurements were taken on the downstream side. At the time it served as a "single span, wooden, covered highway bridge".[13]
The Forksville Covered Bridge was restored in 1970 with what the NRHP nomination form describes only as "all kinds of odd repairs".[3] The NBI says the bridge was "reconstructed" in 2004, but does not give further details.[2] The entire bridge has been reinforced with steel girders.[6] In 2006 the bridge was painted red by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, which now owns and maintains it, in an operation that took about three weeks.[14] The 1980 NRHP form, Zacher's 1994 book, and the Evans' 2001 book all describes the condition of the bridge as good.[3][5][6]
Despite the restoration, the 2006 Federal Highway Administration National Bridge Inventory found the sufficiency rating of the bridge structure to be only 17.4 percent. It found that the bridge's foundations were "determined to be stable for calculated scour conditions", however the railing "[d]oes not meet currently acceptable standards".[2] Its overall condition was deemed "[b]asically intolerable requiring high priority of corrective action", with an estimated cost to improve the bridge of USD$463,000.[2]
The bridge is heavily used, as it is the most direct and shortest route from PA 154 to Forksville and its general store, which at the western end of the bridge.[6] The bridge has a posted speed limit of 15 miles per hour (24 km/h) and its average daily traffic was 217 vehicles in 2006.[2] Zacher's The Covered Bridges of Pennsylvania: A Guide describes the bridge's location "over the rocky Loyalsock Creek" as "one of the most attractive settings in the state."[5]
[edit] Literature comparison
The following table is a comparison of published measurements of length, width, and load of the Cogan House Covered Bridge, as well as the name or names cited. The article uses primarily the NBI and NRHP data, as they are national programs, fairly recent, and presumed most accurate.
| Length feet (m) |
Width feet (m) |
Load short tons (MT) |
Name used |
Source (Year) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 152.9 feet (46.6 m) | 12.1 feet (3.7 m) | 3.0 short tons (2.7 MT) | Forksville | NBI (2006)[2] |
| 146 feet (44.5 m) | 15 feet (4.6 m) | NA | Forksville | NRHP (1980)[3] |
| 163.25 feet (49.8 m) | 18.88 feet (5.8 m) | NA | Forksville | Evans (2001)[6] |
| 130 feet (39.6 m) | 15 feet (4.6 m) | NA | Forksville | Zacher (1994)[5] |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ United States Geological Survey. "USGS Eagles Mere (PA) Topo Map". TerraServer-USA and the National Map. Retrieved on 2008-06-06.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Federal Highway Administration National Bridge Inventory (2006). "Place Name: Forksville, Pennsylvania; NBI Structure Number: 564012001000500; Facility Carried: SR 4012; Feature Intersected: Over Loyalsock Creek". Nationalbridges.com (Alexander Svirsky). Retrieved on 2008-06-06. Note: this is a formatted scrape of the 2006 official website, which can be found here for Pennsylvania: "PA06.txt". Federal Highway Administration (2006). Retrieved on 2008-06-06.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "National Historic Landmarks & National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania" (Searchable database). ARCH: Pennsylvania's Historic Architecture & Archeology. Retrieved on 2008-06-04. Note: This includes Susan M. Zacher, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Forksville Covered Bridge" (PDF). Retrieved on 2008-06-04.
- ^ Evans, Benjamin D.; Evans, June R. (1993). Pennsylvania's Covered Bridges: A Complete Guide, 1st edition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Press, 255. ISBN 0822955040.
- ^ a b c d e Zacher, Susan M. (1994). The Covered Bridges of Pennsylvania: A Guide, 2nd edition, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. ISBN 0-89271-054-3.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Evans, Benjamin D. (2001). Pennsylvania's Covered Bridges: A Complete Guide, 2nd edition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 0-8229-5764-7.
- ^ Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Bureau of Planning and Research, Geographic Information Division. 2007 General Highway Map Sullivan County Pennsylvania [map], 1:65,000. Retrieved on 2008-06-06.
- ^ "National Register of Historic Places — Pennsylvania (PA), Sullivan County". www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com. Retrieved on 2008-06-06.
- ^ Thomas J. Ingham (1899). History of Sullivan County, Pennsylvania: Compendium of Biography. Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing Co.. Retrieved on 2008-06-06.
- ^ "Sullivan County 7th class" (PDF). Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Retrieved on 2008-06-06.
- ^ a b Susan M. Zacher, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Covered Bridges of Bradford, Sullivan and Lycoming Counties" (PDF). Retrieved on 2008-04-14.
- ^ "Covered Bridge Manual: Chapter 6. Ancillary Features, Publication No. FHWA-HRT-04-098". Federal Highway Administration Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center (April 2005). Retrieved on 2008-06-06.
- ^ (1914) Annual Report of the Water Supply Commission of Pennsylvania: 1913. Harrisburg, Pennyslvania: Wm. Stanley Ray, State Printer, pp. 139-140. Retrieved on 2008-06-08.
- ^ "Forksville Covered Bridge repainting starts this week; Short detour required". Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (June 5, 2006). Retrieved on 2008-06-06.
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