As many as 15,000 covered bridges were built in North America over the past 200 years. Fewer than 1,000 remain.
In America's Covered Bridges, authors Terry E. Miller and Ronald G. Knapp tell the fascinating story of these bridges, how they were built, the technological breakthroughs required to construct them and above all the dedication and skill of their builders. Each wooden bridge, whether still standing or long gone, has a story to tell about the nature of America at the time-not only about its transportation needs but the availability of materials and the technological prowess of the people who built it.
North American covered bridges were marvels of engineering long before modern civil engineering was invented. Early American bridge builders developed revolutionary new carpentry methods to join timbers into patterns consisting of triangles or continuous arches that resulted in structures rigid enough to span long distances. These systems, called trusses, were critical to bridge construction of the day and had to be protected from the elements by a roof and siding. Few people today realize that bridges were covered to protect the trusses—not the people using the bridge! The unprotected trusses soon degraded and the bridge would collapse.
Illustrated with some 550 historical and contemporary photos, paintings, and technical drawings of nearly 400 different covered bridges, America's Covered Bridges offers five readable chapters on the history, design and fate of America's covered bridges, plus related bridges in Canada. Most of the contemporary photography is by master photographer A. Chester Ong of Hong Kong.
55 photo essays on the most iconic bridges remaining, including:
Cornish-Windsor Bridge between Vermont and New Hampshire
Porter-Parsonsfield Bridge, Maine
East Paden and West Paden (Twin Bridges), Pennsylvania
Philippi Bridge, West Virginia
Hortons Mill Bridge, Alabama
Medora Bridge, Indiana
Rock Mill Bridge, Ohio
Knight's Ferry Bridge, California
Perrault Bridge, Quebec, Canada
Hartland Bridge, New Brunswick, Canada
Among the featured bridges are two that were destroyed before the book could be published, New York's Blenheim Bridge during a storm and Ohio's Humpback Bridge by arson. The Permanent Bridge in Philadelphia, considered by most as the first covered bridge in America, figures prominently, as do the bridges of Lancaster County—heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country. This compendium of classic Americana includes many of the most astounding and iconic bridges ever built in the United States, including those by Timothy Palmer, Theodore Burr and Lewis Wernwag. Some, like the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge over the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, were a mile long.
Over time, wooden bridges eventually gave way to ones made of iron, steel and concrete. An American icon, many covered bridges became obsolete and were replaced—others simply decayed and collapsed. Many more were swept away by natural disasters and fires. America's Covered Bridges is absolutely packed with fascinating stories and information passionately told by two leading experts on this subject. The book will be of tremendous interest to anyone interested in American history, carpentry and technological change.
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"America's Covered Bridges is a book every covered bridge enthusiast will want to own. Amongst numerous other virtues, the book is profusely illustrated with both historic and contemporary photographs, the latter permitting readers to assess the current condition of many of our covered bridges." -David W. Wright, President, National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges, Incorporated "The authors offer a wealth of historical documentation in this book, which would be hard to find anywhere else. Their coverage of recent change in the field of covered bridge preservation is especially valuable. The photography is first-rate." -Joseph D. Conwill, historian and author, editor of Covered Bridge Topics magazine "America's Covered Bridges has set a new standard of excellence for books on the topic. The authors' exhaustive research and uncommon storytelling skills, along with a willingness to offer candid observations, has resulted in a publication like no other." -David A. Simmons, President, Ohio Historic Bridge Association "America's Covered Bridges is an informative, frank, and enthralling overview of America's venerable yet vulnerable covered bridges, richly illustrated with stunning photography. The authors have collaborated and combined their vast knowledge, expertise, and research and teamed up with photographer A. Chester Ong to produce a volume that will undoubtedly become a must-have reference for pontists as well as covered bridge enthusiasts." -Thomas E. Walczak, covered bridge historian and former president, Theodore Burr Covered Bridge Society of Pennsylvania "America's Covered Bridges deals with the subject of covered wooden bridges from new angles. The authors reflect on what a covered bridge is and what it should be in our society. They do not simply enumerate a succession of historical facts or present only romantic images. Rather, this book considers the value we grant to this legacy when replicas of covered bridges and summary restorations are the order of the day." -Gerald Arbour, Author, Les ponts rouges du Quebec, Montreal, Canada "America's Covered Bridges is an accurate documentation and splendid pictorial of these timber structures, a physical reminder of a simpler time. The book is a valuable testament that tells the stories of the bridges and their builders, as well as the proper techniques for restoration. I hope that this work will raise awareness to save this important legacy." -Arnold Milton Graton, Master Covered Bridge Wright, Ashland, New Hampshire "This book is a much needed resource answering questions that are frequently asked by those touring the bridges from all over the world. The pictures and illustrations are excellent." -Morris Tippin, President, Indiana Covered Bridge Society "Gorgeous color photographs of covered bridges accompanied by historical perspective, construction process and details, and an essay on their contemporary role and status. A balanced account for both the nostalgic and the serious." -Tunney Lee, Former Head, Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT
Terry E. Miller began visiting covered bridges with his father, Max T. Miller, in 1953 and has since visited more than 1,000 in the United States, Canada, Europe, and China, and researched the bridges of two Ohio counties from dusty handwritten journals. Miller spent his career teaching ethnomusicology at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, retiring in 2005. In addition to his research and writings on the music of mainland Southeast Asia, he is the co-author of the popular textbook World Music: A Global Journey.
Ronald G. Knapp is a historical-cultural geographer at State University of New York at New Paltz, where he taught from 1968 to 2001. For the past forty-five years, his research has focused on China's frontier history and Chinese vernacular architecture with many books that celebrate these traditions. His book, Chinese Bridges: Living Architecture from China's Past introduced China's covered bridges to Western readers and has served as the model for America's Covered Bridges: Practical Crossings-Nostalgic Icons.
