June 14, 2016 – Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

I was off to Lancaster, Pennsylvania to visit it’s historic covered bridges. I have visited and photographed covered bridges in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania in the past . Only problem is that they are spread out and that entails a lot of driving. I learned that in Lancaster County they are clustered together and that made it an easy decision to take a road trip to see them. Discover Lancaster has driving tours mapped out on their site which made it that much easier. They are divided into five different tours. I was able to complete three of them. I stuck to strictly the bridges because their tour also includes other attractions as well. I was only interested in covered bridges and since I was only spending two days in Lancaster I didn’t have enough time to see everything.

This tour included five bridges which were separated by about 10 miles. Most of the bridges are still being used today and are in pretty good shape. I will list the names of the bridges, some basic information along with some images below that I captured along the driving tour. I will not include the dates that they were built because some bridges were either washed away or extensively damaged during hurricanes. Some have been rebuilt several times. For more information on these bridges please visit Lancaster County Bridge Map.

Hunsecker’s Mill Covered Bridge  has a single span, wooden, double Burr arch trusses design. The bridge, which spans the Conestoga River is 180 feet long and 15 feet wide, making it the longest single span covered bridge in the county. The bridge is open to all traffic and in good condition. Click on the ensuing images to enlarge.

Pinetown Covered Bridge spans the Conestoga River and has a single span, wooden, double Burr arch trusses design with the addition of steel hanger rods. The deck is made from oak planks. It is painted red, the traditional color of Lancaster County covered bridges, on both the inside and outside. Both approaches to the bridge are painted in red with white trim, the length of the bridge is 133 feet and the width is 15 feet.

Zook’s Mill Covered Bridge spans Cocalico Creek and has a single span, wooden, double Burr arch trusses design with the addition of steel hanger rods. The deck is made from oak planks. It is painted red, the traditional color of Lancaster County covered bridges, on both the inside and outside. Both approaches to the bridge are painted red with white trim. The bridge is 74 feet long and 13 feet 3 inches wide.

Keller’s Mill Covered Bridge due to heavy road traffic on the aging, one-lane bridge, construction on a new steel and concrete bridge to bypass the covered bridge occurred in the summer of 2006. The bridge was disassembled and reassembled a few miles downstream to replace an existing one lane Mill Creek Road bridge.It has a single span, wooden, double Burr arch trusses design with the addition of steel hanger rods. The deck is made from oak planks. The bridge is the only all white bridge in the county, the only bridge to have survived the transition from whitewashing to the red color commonly used in barns throughout the county. The bridge is not painted on the inside. The length of the bridge is 74 feet and the width is 15 feet, it is open to all traffic and in very good condition.

Erb’s Covered Bridge spans Hammer Creek and has a single span, wooden, double Burr arch trusses design with the addition of steel hanger rods. The deck is made from oak planks. It is painted red, the traditional color of Lancaster County covered bridges, on both the inside and outside. Both approaches to the bridge are painted in the traditional white color.

That’s it for this leg of the tour. The next tour is the Northern Amish Countryside, which includes 5 more covered bridges.  Stay tuned……..