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Woodside Station Covered Bridge

An undated photograph of the covered bridge on Woodside Station Road, Upper Paxton Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.

This bridge was one of many that were destroyed in the flooding caused by Tropical Storm Agnes in 1972.

The Souvenir Book for the Bicentennial of Upper Paxton Township, 1767-1967, provided the following description of the bridge and covered bridges in general:

Upper Paxton Township has only one remaining covered bridge [1967], this one located three miles east of Millersburg just off Route 209 on Township Road No. 460, and known as Woodside Station Bridge, spand the Wiconisco Creek with one span 96 feet long.  The width of the bridge is 16 feet, the roadway covered with oak plank and posted for a weight limit of 4 tons.  Abutments are of stone and the general structure is wood with a metal roof.  The bridge is of the Burr type, designed by Theodore Burr.  Born in Torrington, Connecticut in 1771, Burr was the designer of many covered bridges throughout the state.  This design, patented in 1804, became known as the Burr Truss.  Burr’s arch design became an impressive legacy to new generations of bridge builders.  Bridges of this type are seen throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland and the Virginias.  A lot of care went into the building of these bridges and that care accounts for the fact that many of these bridges are still standing today.  Many people ask, “But why covered?”  “Keeps em dry,” an old Pennsylvania carpenter always answered.  The roofs were put on to keep the great main beams and arches dry — if alternately exposed to sun and rain, massive as the timbers are, they soon would rot.  They were also known as refuges for travelers, wagon loads of hay of farmers caught in sudden summer storms and sweethearts halted in the shadows.  This is possibly the reason they are sometimes referred to as “kissing bridges.”  Pennsylvania was known as the keystone of American bridge building, having at one time over a thousand covered spans, more than all that stand in the entire United States today [1967].  Pennsylvania was also distinct in having the first covered bridge.

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