Covered Bridges, By Don Homer

            A question was asked recently,  “Why did they build covered bridges?  Why are they usually red?”  There were several suggestions, so it was time to look deeper.  It was not to provide shelter to travelers, or to keep animals from being frightened as they crossed a stream, or to provide for a little romance. 

            The reason to build a covered bridge is to protect what is inside the enclosure, the bridge itself, specifically, the trusses.   The roofs were slanted to allow snow to slide off.  While wood is a comparatively light, cheap, and strong building material, moisture is the death of wooden structures.  An uncovered wooden bridge might last only a decade or two before succumbing to rot.  In contrast, a covered bridge can easily last more than a century.

             However, the town had to pay for “snowing the bridge” each winter.  Think of it as the opposite of plowing.  Before the advent of automobiles, people relied largely on horse-drawn wagons for transport.  When it snowed, they switched out their wagons for sleighs, which could ride atop the snow.   However, covered bridges’ ability to keep snow off the decking proved a liability.  Sleighs need snow to glide upon, so towns hired a resident each year to cover the bridge deck in snow. 

            Bridges were very important to a town.  When waterpower was king, communities naturally grew up beside a river, brook, or stream.  Build a mill with some dependably running water and you have a power source to make almost anything.  Bridges soon followed the mills, because they allowed towns to grow on both sides of the waterway.  These bridges did away with isolation and eliminated the need to establish a ferry service or take a time-consuming detour. 

             Why paint a bridge red like a barn?  Cost.  Because red paint was cheap. Before paints became common and affordable, farmers still needed a way to protect their barns and bridges.  To solve this problem, they mixed three things they had plenty of - skimmed milk, lime, and rust (iron oxide). 

Covered bridges have a special meaning for my wife, Susan, and me.  I was a private pilot and owned 1/3 of a Cessna 182.  When I was dating Susan, I flew her to all the covered bridges in or near Chester County.