Buttonwood Covered Bridge
Buttonwood Covered Bridge and Blockhouse Creek, as seen from the northbound lane of US 15
Coordinates41°30′36″N 77°07′48″W / 41.509894°N 77.130107°W / 41.509894; -77.130107
CarriesTownship 816
CrossesBlockhouse Creek
LocaleLycoming, Pennsylvania, United States
Official nameButtonwood Covered Bridge
Named forvillage of Buttonwood
Maintained byLycoming County
NBI Number417215081601110
Characteristics
DesignNational Register of Historic Places
Total length74.2 ft (22.6 m)[1]
Width14.4 ft (4.4 m)[2]
Height10.7 ft (3.3 m)
Load limit3 tons (2.7 t)
History
Built1878 or 1898
MPSCovered Bridges of Bradford, Sullivan and Lycoming Counties TR
NRHP reference No.80003569
Added to NRHPJuly 24, 1980
Location
Map

The Buttonwood Covered Bridge is a covered bridge built in either 1878 or 1898 over Blockhouse Creek in Jackson Township, Lycoming County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It uses a queen post with king post truss and is 74 feet 2 inches (22.6 m) long. The bridge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, and had a major restoration in 1998. It is the shortest and most heavily used of the three covered bridges remaining in Lycoming County.[3]

Dimensions

The following table is a comparison of published measurements of length, width and load recorded in different sources using different methods, as well as the structural type cited. The NBI measures bridge length between the "backwalls of abutments" or pavement grooves and the roadway width as "the most restrictive minimum distance between curbs or rails".[1] The NRHP form measures length from "end post to end post", and was prepared by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), which surveyed county engineers, historical and covered bridge societies, and others for all the covered bridges in the commonwealth.[2][4] The Evans visited every covered bridge in Pennsylvania in 2001 and measured each bridge's length (portal to portal) and width (at the portal) for their book.[5] The data in Zacher's book was based on a 1991 survey of all covered bridges in Pennsylvania by the PHMC and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, aided by local government and private agencies.[6] The article uses primarily the NBI and NRHP data, as they are national programs.

Length
feet (m) 		Width
feet (m) 		Load
short tons (MT) 		Truss
type(s) 		Year
built 		Source
(Year)
77 feet 6 inches (23.6 m) 16 feet 6 inches (5.0 m) 3.0 short tons (2.7 t) Queen post 1878 Landis (1966)[7]
74 feet 2 inches (22.6 m) 14 feet 5 inches (4.4 m) 11 short tons (10.0 t) Wood or Timber Pre-1900 NBI (2009)[1]
63 feet 6 inches (19.4 m) 14 feet 5 inches (4.4 m) 3.0 short tons (2.7 t) Multiple kingpost and queenpost
Burr arch[8]		 1898 NRHP (1980)[2]
74 feet 4 inches (22.7 m) 15 feet 8.5 inches (4.8 m) NA Queenpost with kingpost 1898 Evans (2001)[5]
57 feet (17.4 m) 14 feet 5 inches (4.4 m) NA Burr 1898 Zacher (1994)[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Federal Highway Administration (2009). "Place Name: Jackson (Township of), Pennsylvania; NBI Structure Number: 417215081601110; Facility Carried: Buttonwood; Feature Intersected: Blockhouse Creek". Nationalbridges.com (Alexander Svirsky). Retrieved October 30, 2010.[permanent dead link] Note: this is a formatted scrape of the 2009 official website, which can be found here for Pennsylvania: "PA09.txt". Federal Highway Administration. 2009. Retrieved October 30, 2010.
  2. ^ a b c "Pennsylvania Cultural Resources Geographic Information System (CRGIS)" (Searchable database). Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Retrieved November 2, 2010.[permanent dead link] Note: This includes Zacher, Susan M. and Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Buttonwood Covered Bridge" (PDF). Retrieved November 2, 2010.
  3. ^ Evans, Benjamin D.; Evans, June R. (1993). Pennsylvania's Covered Bridges: A Complete Guide (1st ed.). Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 255. ISBN 0-8229-5504-0.
  4. ^ Zacher, Susan M. and Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Covered Bridges of Bradford, Sullivan and Lycoming Counties" (PDF). Retrieved November 2, 2010.
  5. ^ a b Evans, Benjamin D.; Evans, June R. (2001). Pennsylvania's Covered Bridges: A Complete Guide (2nd ed.). Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 200. ISBN 0-8229-5764-7.
  6. ^ a b Zacher, Susan M. (1994). The Covered Bridges of Pennsylvania: A Guide (2nd ed.). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. p. 110. ISBN 0-89271-054-3.
  7. ^ Landis, Milton W. (January 1966). "The Buttonwood Covered Bridge". Now and then (The Journal of the Muncy, Pennsylvania Historical Society). XV (1): 77–81.
  8. ^ Note: the Buttonwood Covered Bridge NRHP nomination materials on CRGIS contain two earlier surveys, the individual NRHP nomination form for the bridge, and the Thematic Resources (Multiple Properties Submission) form for the seven remaining covered bridges in Lycoming, Sullivan and Bradford Counties. One undated survey refers to its truss as "M. King & Queen", while the other makes no mention of truss type. Both NRHP forms mistakenly describe the bridge as a Burr Arch truss.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Buttonwood Covered Bridge.
US National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania
Bridges and tunnels on the National Register of Historic Places
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