The first history of Bucks County’s iconic covered bridges will go on sale publicly on May 20. “Wooden Treasures: The Story of Bucks County’s Covered Bridges” is a project five years in the making and it accounts for the 51 covered bridges once located in the county.
Today, only 12 such bridges remain in Bucks County, and they have a special place regionally as “cultural treasures.” That heritage goes back to Theodore Burr’s landmark 1806 covered bridge at Morrisville to the 39 local covered bridges that connected Bucks County towns by 1875. Also in 1980, Bucks County’s original covered bridges were placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service.
“Few people today realize the important role covered bridges played in our pre-industrial economy– and how close we came to losing the surviving covered bridges in the name of progress,” said R. Scott Bomboy, the author of “Wooden Treasures.” Due mostly to county and state policies, many Bucks County covered bridges were demolished by 1940. It fell to a small group of people to save the remaining bridges for future generations to enjoy.
“Wooden Treasures” documents each of the 51 covered bridges and includes more than 240 photos and illustrations – many of which are published for the first time. The project’s origins go back to June 2018, when the author worked with the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, to build a website, bucksbridges.com, that was the first effort to research all 51 bridges. Since then, the project grew in scope, with content contributed by the Theodore Burr Covered Bridge Society of Pennsylvania, Bucknell University, Temple University, Princeton University, the Trenton Free Public Library, and private collectors of covered bridge photographs.
While many people think New England was the cradle of America’s covered bridges, the first two “wooden treasures” in the United States were built in Pennsylvania by Timothy Palmer (1805 in Philadelphia) and Theodore Burr (in 1806, connecting Bucks County’s Morrisville with Trenton). Bucks County’s commissioners paid for more than three dozen local covered bridges until 1875. But after 1920, the old structures fell out of favor with government officials.
The South Perkasie covered bridge’s preservation in 1958 led to a policy change toward local covered bridges and the growth of covered bridge tourism in Bucks County, which is still going strong today. Among the county’s surviving original covered bridges are Cabin Run, Erwinna, Frankenfield’s, Knecht’s, Loux’s, Pine Valley, Sheard’s Mill, South Perkasie, Uhlerstown, and Van Sant’s. Two replica bridges, Mood’s and Schofield Ford, have replaced bridges lost to fires.
“Wooden Treasures: The Story of Bucks County’s Covered Bridges,” published by Bridgetown communications, will be available online on May 20 at coveredbridgebook.com. The website also includes free content such as the book’s introduction. The retail cost of “Wooden Treasures” is $29.99, not including shipping and handling. The 220-page book contains 243 photos and illustrations. Selected local outlets will also sell “Wooden Treasures,” with details to be announced.
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