Barrackville Covered Bridge, Marion County, West Viginia
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The Barrackville Covered Bridge is a single-span modified Burr arch truss wooden covered bridge on a dry-laid sandstone abutment. It was Built in 1853 by Eli & Lemuel Chenoweth. The total length of the truss is 146′-3″ with a clear span length of 131′-8″. The truss is 11′-8″ high center-to-center of the chords and 17′-11″ wide center-to-center of the trusses, with a roadway width of 15′-6″. Clapboard siding covers the exterior, and standing-seam metal roofing covers the gable roof.
The bridge is of poplar and oak framed in the manner patented by Theodore Burr in 1817. The principal structural components are a pair of hewn timber segmented arches framed into and around a pair of multiple kingpost trusses to create an indeterminate composite timber structure.
Built as part of Virginia’s network of turnpikes linking the Tidewater to the Trans-Allegheny regions, this example of the Burr truss demonstrates the high level of craftsmanship and knowledge of contemporary engineering design that went into many covered bridges.
— Dennis M. Zembala, Historical American Engineering Record, 1995
Barrackville Covered Bridge, Marion County, West Viginia
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The bridge was bypassed in 1987 and is now only open to pedestrian traffic. Since these images were made in 2006, the bridge has been repainted. Both the sides and roof are now red.
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