Sonestown Covered Bridge
National Register of Historic Places

Sonestown Covered Bridge

Sonestown, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania
Listed
July 23, 1980
Type
Structure
Period
Early Republic
Ref No.
80003640

About this property

The Sonestown Covered Bridge is a covered bridge over Muncy Creek in Davidson Township, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, United States. Built around 1850, It is 110 ft (34 m) long and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1980. It is named for the nearby unincorporated village of Sonestown in Davidson Township, and is also known as the Davidson Covered Bridge. It was built to provide access to a grist mill which operated until the early 20th century. Pennsylvania had the first covered bridge in the United States and has the most of any state in the 21st century. In most places, they were a transition between stone and metal bridges, with the roof and sides protecting the wooden structure from weather. The Sonestown bridge is a Burr arch truss type with a load-bearing arch sandwiching multiple vertical king posts for strength and rigidity. The bridge construction is cruder than the other two surviving covered bridges in Sullivan County, with each Burr arch formed from six straight beams set at angles instead of a smooth curve. The bridge was repaired in 1969 and after flood damage in 1996, 2005, 2013, and 2020. It was also restored in 2001. Despite the repairs and restoration, however, the bridge structure's sufficiency rating on the National Bridge Inventory was only 21.3 percent in 2016, and its condition was deemed "basically intolerable requiring high priority of corrective action". It is the shortest covered bridge in the county, but as of 2020 is open only to pedestrian traffic.

Location

Sonestown, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania
41.34642, -76.55495

Categories

TRANSPORTATION
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Eagles Mere Historic District
Listed
5.2 mi
Eagles Mere Historic District (Boundary Increase)
Listed
5.4 mi
Sullivan County Courthouse
Industrial
6.2 mi
Worlds End State Park Family Cabin District
Listed
8.4 mi
Hillsgrove Covered Bridge
Civil War
9.9 mi

Questions about this property

When was Sonestown Covered Bridge listed on the National Register?

Sonestown Covered Bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 23, 1980.

What type of historic resource is Sonestown Covered Bridge?

Sonestown Covered Bridge is classified as a structure in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Sonestown Covered Bridge?

The period of significance for Sonestown Covered Bridge is recorded as the early_republic era, specifically around 1850.

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