Capon Lake Whipple Truss Bridge

Capon Lake Whipple Truss Bridge

Capon Lake Whipple Truss Bridge is a Whipple truss bridge in Capon Lake, West Virginia. The bridge’s technology was developed by civil engineer Squire Whipple in 1847. In 1859, J. W. Murphy further modified Whipple’s truss design in 1859 by designing the first truss Bridge with pinned eyebar connections.

About Capon Lake Whipple Truss Bridge in brief

Summary Capon Lake Whipple Truss BridgeCapon Lake Whipple Truss Bridge is a Whipple truss bridge in Capon Lake, West Virginia. The bridge’s technology was developed by civil engineer Squire Whipple in 1847. In 1859, J. W. Murphy further modified Whipple’s truss design in 1859 by designing the first truss Bridge with pinned eyebar connections. It is West Virginia’s oldest remaining example of a Whipples trussbridge and its oldest extant metal trussBridge. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 15, 2011, due to its rarity, age, and engineering significance. It carries Capon Springs Road between West Virginia Route 259 and Capon Spring, and is located in a rural agricultural and forested area of southeastern Hampshire County within the Cacapon River valley. In 1991, a new bridge was completed to the south, and the bridge was preserved in place by the West Virginia Division of Highways. It’s located along Carpers Pike in the unincorporated community of Capon lake, 2. 05 miles southwest of Yellow Spring and 6. 77 miles northeast of the town of Wardensville. The historic Capon springs Resort is located 3. 5 miles east of CapOn Lake. The confluence of Cap on Springs Run with the CACapon River lies just north of the bridge. George Washington National Forest is located to the bridge’s southeast, covering the foresting area south of Capan Springs Road. The property containing the bridge is less than 1 acre in size, and it is located on a small piece of land that is about 1 acre wide and 1 acre deep.

It has a pedestrian walkway that consists of an observation and wooden seating near the bridge’s midspan. The walkway is approximately 20 feet width and 176 feet in length. Its truss structure exhibits a double-intersection configuration, constructed of 14 bays, each measuring 11 feet wide and 23 feet in height, with the diagonals extending across two bays across two diagonal pins in the span. The CaponLake Whippletruss Bridge was originally constructed in 1874 as part of the South Branch Bridge, conveying the Northwestern Turnpike across theSouth Branch Potomac River near Romney. The larger WhippleTruss bridge replaced an 1838 wooden covered bridge that was destroyed during the American Civil War. The current bridge is built atop a reinforced concrete abutment and is built on a wrought iron bracketed bracketed with pin connections in counter-diagonals and counter-counter-counter connections. Because of its uncommon innovative design and age, it is one of WestVirginia’s most historically significant bridges. It is the oldest remaining examples of Whipple-style truss bridges in the state. It also displays distinctive innovations developed by the prominent civil engineers and bridge designers SquireWhipple and J. J. Murphy; the innovations are evident in the bridge-intersections and double-Intersection-style configuration.