Covered bridges are in essence truss beam bridges with a covering to help protect the truss and prevent extra weight, such as snow, from exerting pressure on the deck.  The primary purpose of covering the deck and trusses is to shield the bridge from snow and rain, and thereby stave off decay and rot.  Most of America's covered bridges were built between 1825 and 1875, although the first one is credit to Timothy Palmer as the "Permanent Bridge," built in 1805 across the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania.  This is a sampling of bridges from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Vermont.  For general information, the Wikipedia article is a good place to start.  According to the Federal Highway Administration Covered Bridge Manual, less than 900 covered bridges remain out of some 14,000 that existed at one time across the United States.  Another resource is the National Society for the Preservation of Covered Brdiges' website.

    Mood's Bridge (right) in East Rockhill, Pennsylvania, was destroyed by fire in June 2004. 
















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