You are here

Western Pennsylvania » Rolling Hills and Rolling Mills » Westmoreland County » West Newton Vicinity » Bells Mills Covered Bridge

Bells Mills Covered Bridge

-A A +A
1850, Daniel McCain. PA 3061 off PA 136, 3.2 miles east of West Newton

This is Westmoreland County's only surviving wood truss bridge. Spanning Sewickley Creek, the ninety-five-foot-long and fourteen-foot-wide structure is covered with a lowpitched gable roof, and features pediments and Tuscan piers at the portals. Burr's truss system was patented in 1804. Here, McCain added arches to the multiple kingpost truss to create a longer and stronger bridge. Modern engineers believe that the multiple king-post truss is a system for keeping Burr's slender arches properly aligned and preventing them from buckling. Daniel McCain (1810–1891) was for a time the superintendent of bridge construction in Allegheny County, working on the Ninth Street ( AL13), Sixteenth Street ( AL80), and 43rd Street bridges in Pittsburgh, as well as bridges for the Pennsylvania and West Penn railroads. Transportation advances have caused demolition of similar bridges on well-traveled roads of the commonwealth. In the late 1980s, the Beamery, a local firm known for reconstructing historic structures, made extensive repairs to this bridge. Nearby are the stone Sewickley Presbyterian Church of 1831 and a large, red brick, five-bay house at 211 Bells Mills Road.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Lu Donnelly et al.
×

Data

What's Nearby

Bel Ange
Concord School
Brush Hill
Brush Creek Salem United Church of Christ (Brush Creek Salem Church)
Harrold Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church

Citation

Lu Donnelly et al., "Bells Mills Covered Bridge", [West Newton, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-01-WE38.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of PA vol 1

Buildings of Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania, Lu Donnelly, H. David Brumble IV, and Franklin Toker. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010, 235-235.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,