Butler Covered Bridge 17-96-02x
Description
Built 1870 by J.J. Newman & B.F. Erwin under firm name of Newman & Erwin, Middleton, Ohio, for commissioners of Pendleton County.-- Historic American Buildings Survey
Facts
- Overview
- Lost Burr arch-truss bridge over Licking River on KY 177
- Location
- Butler, Pendleton County, Kentucky
- Status
- Replaced by new bridge
- History
- Built 1870
- Builder
- - J.J. Newman
- Design
- Burr arch-truss
- Dimensions
-
Total length: 456.0 ft.
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +38.78972, -84.36751 (decimal degrees)
38°47'23" N, 84°22'03" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 16/728642/4296734 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Butler
- Inventory numbers
- KY 96 (Kentucky bridge number)
WGCB 17-96-02x (World Guide to Covered Bridges number)
BH 45329 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- April 8, 2014: HAER photos posted by Dave King
- March 3, 2014: New photo from Bill Eichelberger
- November 15, 2011: Updated by Bill Eichelberger: Added missing location.
- January 17, 2011: New photo from Bill Eichelberger
- October 14, 2010: New photos from Bill Eichelberger
- May 20, 2010: Added by Bill Eichelberger
Sources
- Bill Eichelberger
- HABS KY-20-11 - Wood-Covered Bridge, Spanning Main Licking River, Butler, Pendleton County, KY
Comments
As this photograph from late summer 1937 clearly illustrates, all three spans of the Butler Bridge remained intact until the end. The approach span at this end is original to the structure. The far abutment is all that remains intact at this location though the abutment footings are visible in the river bed. The abutment at this end is now just a pile of discarded stone.
Walter Laughlin
Kentucky's Covered Bridges
Arcadia Publishing, 2007
To my knowledge there has never been any indication that the original work on the bridge was sub-standard. No mention of this appears in any record I have researched and such sub-standard workmanship would have caused problems with the structure much earlier than 1937. The bridge was repaired by the Bower Bridge company in 1904.
Second: The 1937 flood did NOT cause one of the spans to be destroyed. The bridge was used (though the roof and siding were removed prior to 1934) until the new bridge was completed in September or October, 1937.
Third: AND AGAIN. The bridge at Butler was NEVER the longest covered bridge in the world. It was never the longest in the United States. It WAS the longest ever built in Kentucky.
Walter Laughlin
Kentucky's Covered Bridges
Arcadia Publishing, 2007
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/ky/pendleton/butler-covered/
Unfortunately Walter, I have found way too many of these historical markers with incorrect information.
This one seems to be chock full of it!