Honey Run Covered Bridge Explained

Honey Run Covered Bridge
Coordinates:39.7286°N -121.7036°W
Built:1886
Demolished:2018
Restored:Planned for 2022[1]
Restored By:Honey Run Covered Bridge Association (HRCBA)
Architect:American Bridge and Building Company of San Francisco
Added:June 23, 1988
Refnum:88000920

Honey Run Covered Bridge was a wooden covered bridge crossing Butte Creek, in Butte County, northern California in the United States. It was located on Honey Run Road at Centerville Road, about halfway in between Chico and Paradise, until it was destroyed in the Camp Fire on November 8, 2018.[2]

History

Built in 1886 and accepted as completed by the Butte County Board of Supervisors on January 3, 1887, the Honey Run Bridge (originally Carr Hill Bridge) was constructed by the American Bridge and Building Company of San Francisco. George Miller was appointed Superintendent of Construction by Butte County to oversee the project.

The three-span wooden bridge was originally built uncovered, as evidenced by the timber trusses of the two original, remaining spans covered with sheet metal on three sides. The cover was added in 1901.

Crossing Butte Creek, the Honey Run Bridge was the only surviving example of a three-span timber Pratt-type covered bridge in the United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

The bridge was open to vehicular traffic until a truck crashed into the eastern span and damaged it in 1965, thus making the bridge virtually impassable. A new steel bridge was built upstream for vehicular traffic.

The covered bridge was then used as a pedestrian footbridge, protected within Honey Run Covered Bridge County Park. Local residents raised funds and rebuilt the eastern span from the ruins, and the bridge re-opened in 1972.[3]

It was destroyed by the Camp Fire on November 8, 2018.[4] There is a possibility that Historic American Engineering Record documentation of the bridge could be used in its reconstruction.[5]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: ABOUT HONEY RUN COVERED BRIDGE. HRCBA.
  2. News: 132-year-old Honey Run Covered Bridge, the last of its kind, destroyed by wildfire. Robertson. Michelle. 2018-11-10. SFGate. 2018-11-10.
  3. Book: America's Covered Bridges . Tuttle . Miller, Terry E.. 25 March 2014 . 9781462914203 .
  4. Web site: Camp Fire in Paradise as Wildfire destroyed Buildings . November 2018.