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The Twin Bridges

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East Paden and West Paden
1850, 1884, 2007. Off PA 1020, east of PA 487, Twin Bridges Park, east of Forks, approximately 11 miles northwest of Berwick
  • (Photograph by Debbie Naylor, 2022)

Different in length, width, and trusses, the East and West Paden covered bridges are not identical twins but were constructed as a pair by W. C. Pennington to cross Huntingdon Creek. Named for local miller John Paden, the one-hundred-foot-long West Paden bridge, constructed with Burr arches and multiple king-post trusses, is fifteen feet wide, while East Paden, built with queen-post trusses, is almost seventy-three feet long and fourteen feet wide. They have the striking feature of long horizontal “windows” that extend along each bridge's entire length on both sides. The West Paden Bridge was destroyed by a spring freshet in 2006 but was rebuilt two years later along its original lines. Today the bridges are open to foot traffic only and are used as picnic pavilions.

Writing Credits

Author: 
George E. Thomas
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Citation

George E. Thomas, "The Twin Bridges", [Orangeville, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-02-CO5.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of PA vol 2

Buildings of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, George E. Thomas, with Patricia Likos Ricci, Richard J. Webster, Lawrence M. Newman, Robert Janosov, and Bruce Thomas. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 496-496.

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