List of covered bridges in West Virginia explained

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 (285feet) and an important part of state history for its associations with the American Civil War.[1]

Existing bridges

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

Nameclass=unsortable ImageLocation
Year BuiltLengthCrossesDesignHistorical Notes
Barrackville Covered Bridge Barrackville, Marion County1853146feetBuffalo CreekMultiple king post, Burr archBuilt by Lemuel Chenoweth
Carrollton Covered Bridge Carrollton, Barbour County1856141feetBuckhannon RiverMultiple king post, Burr arch
Center Point Covered Bridge Center Point, Doddridge County188842feetPike Fork of McElroy CreekLong truss
Dents Run Covered Bridge Laurel Point, Monongalia County188940feetDents RunKing post
Fish Creek Covered Bridge aka "Hundred Covered Bridge" Hundred, Wetzel County1881, 2001[2] 30feetFish CreekKing post
Fletcher Covered Bridge aka "Ten Mile Creek Covered Bridge" Cutler, Harrison County189158feetTenmile CreekMultiple king post
Herns Mill Covered Bridge aka "Milligan Creek Covered Bridge" Asbury, Greenbrier County188454feetMilligans CreekQueen post
Hokes Mill Covered Bridge aka "Second Creek Covered Bridge" Hokes Mill, Greenbrier County189982feetSecond CreekLong truss
Indian Creek Covered Bridge Union, Monroe County190348feetIndian CreekLong truss
Laurel Creek Covered Bridge aka "Lily Dale Covered Bridge" Lillydale, Monroe County191122feetLaurel CreekHowe truss
Locust Creek Covered Bridge Hillsboro, Pocahontas County1870113feetMonroe CreekWarren truss
Mud River Covered Bridge Milton, Cabell County1875108feetMud RiverHowe truss
Philippi Covered Bridge Philippi, Barbour County1852285feetTygart Valley RiverLong truss with Burr archBuilt by Chenoweth
Sarvis Fork Covered Bridge aka "Sandy Creek Covered Bridge" and "New Era Covered Bridge" Sandyville, Jackson County1889, 2000101feetLeft Fork Sandy CreekLong truss
Simpson Creek Covered Bridge aka "Hollens Mill Covered Bridge" Bridgeport, Harrison County188174feetSimpson CreekMultiple king post
Staats Mill Covered Bridge Ripley, Jackson County188797feetPondLong trussOriginally over Tug Fork, Big Mill Creek
Walkersville Covered Bridge Walkersville, Lewis County190854feetRight Fork of West Fork RiverQueen 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.[3]

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. West Virginia Atlas & Gazetteer, DeLorme Publishing; 3rd edition (2003), pg 13
  2. Book: Caswell . William S. . World Guide to Covered Bridges . National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges . Concord, New Hampshire . 978-0-578-30263-8 . 2021 . 157–161.
  3. Shaluta, Jr., Stephen J. (2004), Covered Bridges in West Virginia, Charleston, West Virginia: Quarrier Press.
  4. 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.
  5. The longest covered bridge ever existing in Harrison County (300 feet).
  6. 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.)
  7. 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

External links