2 days ago
Preservation of covered bridges in western Pennsylvania is labor of love
If you think about rural America, one image that may crop up no matter where you are in the country is that of a covered bridge.
Usually built from the very timber that surrounded them, covered bridges have gone from once a vital throughway of the hinterlands to now a symbol of our nation's transportation past.
"Pennsylvania has the most covered bridges of any state in the country," said Christopher Marston, an architect and covered bridge historian based in Washington, D.C. "There were once as many as 10,000 covered bridges around, mostly built in the 19th century, but there are still 800 remaining historic covered bridges around the county and over 200 of those are in Pennsylvania."
Marston was part of the National Covered Bridges Recording Project, which from 2002 to 2019 was undertaken by the Historic American Engineering Record and the Federal Highway Administration's Office of Infrastructure Research and Development to study covered bridges in the U.S.
The project helped document remaining bridges around the country, as well as designate several bridges as national historic landmarks, make recommendations for their preservation and give funding to covered bridge states to help keep this unique part of American history standing proudly for all to see.
Marston says these bridges went up quickly. They were cheaper to build than their stone and brick counterparts, and their roofs and walls ensured that their wood would be protected from the elements.
The coverings had another purpose, though. They also helped shield people from the praying eyes of their neighbors.
"They are sometimes referred to as 'kissing bridges' because in their heyday, they gained somewhat a romantic appeal," said Jacob Miller, the executive director of the Somerset County Historical Society. "It was a place for young couples, when they drove over it, they could take a minute to sneak a kiss or sneak a hug while they crossed into the relative privacy of the bridge."
Of the 200 covered bridges left in Pennsylvania, some 50 still stand in western Pennsylvania, and 10 of those bridges still call Somerset County home.
Miller says that preservation work on these bridges is a labor of love for places like Somerset, and he hopes that their bridges and all of western Pennsylvania's covered bridges will continue to be a bridge for both the past and the present.
"I hope that [people] can walk in somebody else's shoes," said Miller. "And walk in the path of the past and think about where they would be if they lived at that time period."
More information on Covered Bridges in Somerset County can be found online.
