Table Mountain Covered bridge
Photo from Bridge of Week
View this photo at bridgeofweek.com
BH Photo #540612
Pacific Rural Express, 6 May, 1871: "The Oroville Bridge. Butte county has just completed a contract with the Pacific Bridge Company, of Oakland to put a bridge over Feather river at Oroville. It consists of two main spans, one of 178 feet and the other of two hundred and twenty-eight feet. This last will probably be the longest span yet built on the coast. It is to be constructed throughout on the Smith Patent Truss Plan, which we illustrated and described in full in a previous number of the Press, and which is rapidly coining into favor. The truss is twenty-one feet high and twenty-two feet wide, with double roadways. The piers are constructed of cast iron. on Smith's improved plan. Cylinders, 4 feet 6 inches in diameter, are sunk to bed rock and tilled with concrete. These are braced, so that the two forming a pier act perfectly together. For rapid currents this plan of pier will undoubtedly become very popular, and it is quite as durable in most places as stone. The whole superstructure is placed over forty feet above low water, and is covered and painted. The contract price is $18,000. "Wo congratulate Oroville and Butte county generally on this much needed and valuable improvement. We can also congratulate the coast on the introduction of this new manufacture. The bridge contains very many excellent advantages to which we have before alluded, and the managers of the company evince the most praiseworthy spirit in the manner in which they are going to work. We predict that they will meet with the success which they deserve."
I grew up in this area so I know a good bit, but some of this is all new to me... and I'm no bridge engineer.