Industrial History: 1857 Covered Humpback Bridge near Callaghan and Covington, VA

Saturday, December 3, 2022

1857 Covered Humpback Bridge near Callaghan and Covington, VA

(Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; HAER; Satellite)

Near Callaghan, VA, there is effectively a bridge museum. Within about a mile, from west to east, is a pin-connected bridge, a riveted bridge and a covered wood bridge.

It was built in 1835 and retired in 1929. It was repaired and dedicated as a wayside park on May 26, 1954. [Photo of a plaque via BridgeHunter]

Actually, the plaque appears to be wrong. Several bridges were built here in the 1800s because of floods. The first was built in 1824. This one was built in 1857. [HAER-data, search for "Chronology".]

HAER VA,3-COV.V,1--26 (CT)
26. Southeast by 150 degrees, elevation. - Humpback Covered Bridge, Humpback Bridge Wayside Park, spanning Dunlap Creek, Covington, Covington (Independent City), VA

"Significance: The. oldest surviving wooden bridge in Virginia "Old Hunfbacks" curved multiple kingpost form is unique to America....Today, the Humpback Covered Bridge at Covington, Virginia is one of only two known surviving examples of this type, the other being the Geer's Mill Bridge, or Ponn Bridge, built in 1874 over Raccoon Creek near Wilkesville, Vinton County, Ohio." [HAER-data]

And now it is the only survivor because the Ohio bridge was deliberately burned on Jun 6, 2013. [Bridge Hunter]

HAER VA,3-COV.V,1--14
14. General view of interior from southwest.

One of a few postcards on BridgeHunter

Trevor Wrayton VDOT Flickr via BridgeHunter, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)
Humpback Bridge a Histroic Virginia Landmark on Route 600 in Alleghany County (Photo by Trevor Wrayton, VDOT)
[Note that in the upper-left corner is a link to take you to the album from which this photo is from. Unfortunately, it is broken. So use this album link.]