One of the reasons I enjoy the Fall season so much is the proliferation of rural festivals. High on my list is the Washington/Greene County Covered Bridge Festival, held on the third weekend of September each year. There are thirty covered bridges in the two counties; this year there were individual festivals at the sites of nine of them. As my mobility declines, I find myself preferring the more modest events to the extremely large ones. This year I decided to revisit the McClurg Covered Bridge site and was rewarded with an excellent experience.
The drive from Beth’s home in Leet Township was reasonably short and greatly enhanced by the lovely weather and the first signs of autumn foliage, particularly during our ascent from the Ohio River to the peneplain at Pittsburgh International Airport. The McClurg Bridge is located in Hanover Township Municipal Park about a mile west of the village of Florence, near the intersection of the (old) Steubenville Pike and Route 18. It currently sits in a lovely setting, spanning a dry ravine. Built in 1880 to carry Devil’s Den Road across King’s Creek in nearby Paris, it was replaced by a more modern structure in 1987 and moved three miles to the park.
Our first stop at the Festival was for a detailed inspection of the bridge itself. At twenty-four feet long it is tied (with the nearby Krepps Bridge) for being the shortest bridge in this area and possibly in the state. At first reaction that suggests that it isn’t worth visiting; that couldn’t be further from the truth. Well preserved old bridges are museums of the technology of the mid-nineteenth century. Very short truss bridges are an excellent record of a major step in the development of bridge technology. The earliest bridges were pairs of logs or timbers spanning a dozen or fifteen feet across a ravine, with transverse planks to provide a floor. This worked well until the span grew to eighteen or twenty feet and the deflection of the beams became too great to be practical. The initial solution was to prop up the beams with a pier at mid-span, a solution that was impractical in most cases. Some innovative primitive engineer realized that putting the post on top and bracing it with stiff diagonal members achieved the same result.
The McClurg Bridge is a perfect example of this concept. Its pair of trusses each have a full-length timber (lower chord) spanning the ravine, a vertical post at mid-span, and diagonal timbers from the top of the post to the ends of the lower chord. We structural engineers immediately visualize the loads moving from the bottom of the post to its top, then down the diagonals to their bases. The actual bridge is complicated by the necessity to “cover” it, to protect the trusses from the weather. Posts are added at both ends connected by a horizontal beam (top chord) which provides support for transverse roof trusses and the roof.
Equally as interesting as the analysis of the simple trusses is the design of the connections between the truss and the transverse girders supporting the deck. In this bridge, the load transfer from deck to truss at mid-span is accomplished by a U-shaped iron bar that envelops the girder. Intermediate cross girders are supported by one inch diameter iron rods attached to the diagonals. These clever details are the obvious consequences of an era in which the building materials were limited to timber and the iron implements that a skillful blacksmith could fabricate.
We then visited the vendors’ booths. I am always curious to see what items are being offered for sale at country festivals. The three dozen booths here were just about the right number for me. There was the usual wide variety of hand-made things offered at the booths – candles, jewelry, hot-pads, tea towels, pastry dog treats, etc. I was impressed by a “machine pierced, hand quilted” horse-themed quilt that had been commissioned for a client – the quilter had invested 184 hours in it! The local Boy Scout troop was selling popcorn. Easily my favorite booth was a woodworker from Bloomingdale, Ohio, with an impressive display of items. We ended up purchasing a pair of small cutting boards, very attractive and very practical. Our only other purchases were for a light lunch – Italian sausage and funnel cake sticks.
Following our lunch we drove a few miles east, through Hillman State Park, where we were able to locate another interesting covered bridge, the Lyle Bridge. Located in a lovely setting “in the boondocks”, it didn’t appear to mind the absence of hordes of visitors and the festival setting. The Lyle Bridge presented a different challenge to its builders. Built in 1887 to carry Kramer Road over Brush Run, it still is in service carrying vehicular traffic on a lightly used country road. Its span of thirty-eight feet is enough longer that the two bay king post truss design is no longer practical. If we retain the roof height and merely extend the bays, the slope of the diagonals becomes too shallow to be effective. If we retain the king post truss diagonal slope and increase the height of the truss, the expense of the additional roof support structure becomes excessive. A better solution is to add a bay (and a post) of about the same length. The resulting truss, without a middle diagonal, is called a queen post truss. This is perfectly exemplified by the Lyle Bridge. Here, too, the load transfer path is obvious to the educated eye.
What a delightful way to welcome the 2025 Autumn Season! The only improvement I can recommend would be the addition of a knowledgeable docent at each bridge. I am grateful that I am still able to enjoy modest adventures of this type, and grateful that Beth is so willing to humor my whims.