Hillsgrove Covered Bridge

Hillsgrove Covered Bridge is a Burr arch truss covered bridge over Loyalsock Creek in Hillsgrove Township, Sullivan County, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It was built c. 1850 and is 186 feet long. In 1973, it became the first covered bridge in the county to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the longest of three covered bridges remaining in Sullivan County.

About Hillsgrove Covered Bridge in brief

Summary Hillsgrove Covered BridgeHillsgrove Covered Bridge is a Burr arch truss covered bridge over Loyalsock Creek in Hillsgrove Township, Sullivan County, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It was built c. 1850 and is 186 feet long. In 1973, it became the first covered bridge in the county to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The bridge is named for the township and nearby unincorporated village of HillsGrove, and is also known as Rinkers Covered bridge for an adjoining farm. It is the longest of three covered bridges remaining in Sullivan County. It served as a landing site for lumber rafts on the creek between 1870 and 1890. Nineteenth-century regulations restricting speed, number of animals, and fire are still posted on the bridge. Restoration work was carried out in 1963, 1968, 2010, and again in 2012 after serious flood damage. It had a \”structurally deficient\” rating in the 2012 National Bridge Inventory, with a 16. 5 percent structural sufficiency rating. Pennsylvania is estimated to have once had at least 1,500 covered bridges and is believed to have had most between 1830 and 1875. In 2001, Pennsylvania had more historic covered bridges than any other state; 221 remained in 40 of its 67 counties. Pennsylvania had the firstcovered bridge in 1800 over the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 19th-century Pennsylvania, lumber was an abundant resource for bridge construction, but did not last long when exposed to the elements.

The roof and enclosed sides of covered bridges protected the structural elements, allowing some structural elements to survive for a century. Although there are no more surviving covered bridges in Pennsylvania, there are more surviving Covered Bridges in other states than in the United States. In the latter half of the 19th century, the majority of the bridges were a transition between stone and metal bridges, with the roof and sides protecting the wooden structure from the weather. The first covered bridges were made of cast-iron or steel, the latter of which was made of either stone or steel. The name Hillsgroves Bridge can also refer to a now vanished covered bridge, which stood from 1876 until 1934, when it was condemned and replaced by a steel and concrete structure. It was the third covered bridge on the site: the first fell into the creek, and the second was torn down to make way for the third bridge. Its official name on the NRHP is Hillsgroaves Covered. Bridge, but it is also called Rinker’s Covered bridges for the Rinker farm, which is located at the east end of the bridge, and gave its name to a nearby one-room school known as the Bridge View School. It’s located about 2. 6 miles northeast and upstream of the uninc incorporated village of Hill’s Grove, and just south of Elkland Township. It has a load-bearing Burr arches sandwiching multiple vertical king posts on each side, for strength and rigidity.