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Sunday, April 24, 2005

Covered Bridges

Hutchins Covered Bridge, Lancaster Ohio Posted by Hello


Many people limit themselves to covered bridges when thinking of historic bridges. The one in the picture is a nice example. It was restored and moved to a park in Fairfield County when replaced with a modern bridge at its original location. There were once thousands of these bridges in Ohio. They were largely replaced first by iron then steel truss bridges beginning in the second half of the 19 th Century. Perhaps some people resent metal bridges because they displaced covered bridges. The metal truss bridges were themselves mostly replaced by continuous steel or prestressed concrete bridges, which are most kindly described as "functional" in appearance.

The CB bridge is vulnerable to fire and rot and since it floats is easily "removed" by floods. There are only about 100 old CB left in Ohio and most of these are closed to traffic. I have a link to the covered bridge locations in Ohio on my Website.

Personally, I prefer the asthetics of the metal truss bridge.