List of covered bridges in West Virginia

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Barrackville Covered Bridge Barrackville Covered Bridge - Side in Winter.jpg
Barrackville Covered Bridge

This is a list of West Virginia covered bridges. There are 17 historic wooden covered bridges in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Only three of these bridges were built before 1870 and they are the three longest in the state. Each uses a standard truss design, braced with the Burr Arch. No one-truss design dominates in the state. The bridges are located in three general areas. In the south in Monroe and Greenbrier counties there are about a half dozen bridges within an easy drive of one another. To the north around Philippi is another group of bridges, including the historic Philippi Covered Bridge which is the longest (285 feet (87 m)) and an important part of state history for its associations with the American Civil War. [1]

Contents

Existing bridges

The following is a list of the 17 extant West Virginia covered bridges.

Name [1] ImageLocation
[1] [A] 		Year Built [1] LengthCrossesDesignHistorical Notes
Barrackville Covered Bridge Barrackville Covered Bridge - Side in Winter.jpg Barrackville, Marion County 1853146 feet (45 m)Buffalo CreekMultiple king post, Burr arch Built by Lemuel Chenoweth
Carrollton Covered Bridge [2] Carrollton Covered Bridge.jpg Carrollton, Barbour County 1856141 feet (43 m) Buckhannon River Multiple king post, Burr arch Reconstructed 2022 after arson [3]
Center Point Covered Bridge Center Point Covered Bridge - Side View.jpg Center Point, Doddridge County 188842 feet (13 m)Pike Fork of McElroy Creek Long truss
Dents Run Covered Bridge Dents Run Covered Bridge.jpg Laurel Point, Monongalia County 188940 feet (12 m)Dents Run King post
Fish Creek Covered Bridge aka "Hundred Covered Bridge" Fish Creek Covered Bridge - Side View.jpg Hundred, Wetzel County 1881, 2001 [4] 30 feet (9.1 m)Fish Creek King post
Fletcher Covered Bridge aka "Ten Mile Creek Covered Bridge" Cutler, Harrison County 189158 feet (18 m)Tenmile CreekMultiple king post
Herns Mill Covered Bridge aka "Milligan Creek Covered Bridge" Herns Mill Covered Bridge - Through View.jpg Asbury, Greenbrier County 188454 feet (16 m)Milligans Creek Queen post
Hokes Mill Covered Bridge aka "Second Creek Covered Bridge" Hokes Mill Covered Bridge - Through View.jpg Hokes Mill, Greenbrier County 189982 feet (25 m)Second Creek Long truss
Indian Creek Covered Bridge Indian Creek Covered Bridge - Side View.jpg Union, Monroe County 190348 feet (15 m)Indian Creek Long truss
Laurel Creek Covered Bridge aka "Lily Dale Covered Bridge" Laurel Creek Covered Bridge - Night.jpg Lillydale, Monroe County 191122 feet (6.7 m)Laurel Creek Howe truss
Locust Creek Covered Bridge Locust Creek Covered Bridge.jpg Hillsboro, Pocahontas County 1870113 feet (34 m)Monroe Creek Warren truss
Mud River Covered Bridge Mud River Covered Bridge.jpg Milton, Cabell County 1875108 feet (33 m)Mud River Howe truss
Philippi Covered Bridge PhilippiCoveredBridge.jpg Philippi, Barbour County 1852285 feet (87 m)Tygart Valley River Long truss with Burr arch Built by Chenoweth
Sarvis Fork Covered Bridge aka "Sandy Creek Covered Bridge" and "New Era Covered Bridge" Sarvis Fork Covered Bridge.jpg Sandyville, Jackson County 1889, 2000 [4] 101 feet (31 m)Left Fork Sandy Creek Long truss
Simpson Creek Covered Bridge aka "Hollens Mill Covered Bridge" Bridgeport, Harrison County 188174 feet (23 m)Simpson CreekMultiple king post
Staats Mill Covered Bridge Staats Mill Covered Bridge2.jpg Ripley, Jackson County 188797 feet (30 m)Pond [4] Long truss Originally over Tug Fork, Big Mill Creek
Walkersville Covered Bridge Walkersville Covered Bridge.jpg Walkersville, Lewis County 190354 feet (16 m)Right Fork of West Fork River Queen post

Former bridges

The following is a list of no longer extant West Virginia covered bridges. A complete list of covered bridges that have existed at one time or another in the state would exceed 100. [5]

Barbour County
Braxton County
Doddridge County
Greenbrier County
Harrison County
Lewis County
Marion County
Monongalia County
Preston County
Randolph County
Randolph/Upshur Counties
Taylor County
Upshur County

See also

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 West Virginia Atlas & Gazetteer, DeLorme Publishing; 3rd edition (2003), pg 13
  2. ↑ "NRHP nomination for Carrollton Covered Bridge". National Park Service. Retrieved June 7, 2016.
  3. ↑ "West Virginia DOH completes restoration of historic Carrollton Covered Bridge". WV News. West Virginia News. May 23, 2023. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
  4. 1 2 3 Caswell, William S. World Guide to Covered Bridges (2021 ed.). Concord, New Hampshire: National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges. pp. 157–161. ISBN   978-0-578-30263-8.
  5. ↑ Shaluta, Jr., Stephen J. (2004), Covered Bridges in West Virginia, Charleston, West Virginia: Quarrier Press.
  6. ↑ Cook, Roy Bird: "The Battle of Bulltown" "The West Virginia Review: June 1933:254-56 found in WV Archives and History at wvculture.org, Replaced with steel bridge (my personal witness we drove over it from Burnsville to Bulltown) which was destroyed by Army Engineers when the Burnsville Dam was built between summer of 1972-September 1976. See Wikipedia: Burnsville Lake with source given as Department of Army.
  7. ↑ The longest covered bridge ever existing in Harrison County (300 feet).
  8. ↑ After the Battle of Greenbrier River (3 October 1861), Union troops used the bridge when they built extensive military defenses at nearby Cheat Summit. Over 40 years later, celebrated satirist and short story writer Ambrose Bierce revisited the site of his youthful service. He found that “…the old wooden covered bridge across the Cheat River looks hardly a day older, and is still elaborately decorated with soldiers’ names carven with jack-knives.” (Letter, Ambrose Bierce to Alexander Whitehall, 30 September 1904. Published in Ninth Indiana Veteran Volunteer Infantry Association: Proceedings of the 18th Annual Reunion (N.p., 1904), pp 13-18. Reprinted as “Battlefields and Ghosts” (Palo Alto, California: Harvest Press, 1931) and in Joshi, S.T. and David E. Schultz, eds. (1998), Ambrose Bierce, A Sole Survivor: Bits of Autobiography; Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, pp 3-6.)
  9. ↑ Snider, Joseph Franklin (1945), "The Early History of Grafton", Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 7362. (Master's thesis for West Virginia University), pp 2-3.

Further reading

Notes

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