Rating:
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Knecht's Covered Bridge 38-09-02

Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Photos 

Knecht's Covered Bridge -- October 11, 2009

Upstream side overview looking North

Photo taken by Raymond Klein

Enlarge

BH Photo #148410

Map 

Street View 

Facts 

Overview
Covered bridge over Cooks Creek on Knect's Road in Springfield Twp near Springtown, PA. Bucks County Bridge #192
Location
Springfield Township (Springtown) PA, Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Status
Open to traffic
History
Built 1873; rehabilitated 1983
Design
Covered Through truss
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 92.9 ft.
Total length: 109.9 ft.
Deck width: 15.1 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 11.5 ft.
Recognition
Posted to the National Register of Historic Places on December 1, 1980
Also called
Silfer's Bridge
Approximate latitude, longitude
+40.53806, -75.27778   (decimal degrees)
40°32'17" N, 75°16'40" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
18/476476/4487516 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Hellertown
Average daily traffic (as of 2003)
100
Inventory numbers
PA 09 7009 0418 0192 (Pennsylvania Bridge Management System number)
PANBI 07554 (Pennsylvania BRKEY bridge number on the 2011 NBI)
NRHP 80003432 (National Register of Historic Places reference number)
BH 30563 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection report (as of June 2018)
Overall condition: Fair
Superstructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Deck condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 20.4 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com

Categories 

19th Century (7,640)
Bucks County, Pennsylvania (259)
Built 1873 (98)
Built during 1870s (1,126)
Covered (1,672)
Have street view (27,086)
Lattice through truss (562)
Lattice truss (594)
NR-listed (2,963)
One-lane traffic (7,615)
Open (39,998)
 Owned by county (20,873)
Pennsylvania (5,334)
Span length 75-100 feet (6,454)
Springfield Township (Springtown) PA, Pennsylvania (1)
Structurally deficient (14,091)
Through truss (15,217)
Total length 100-125 feet (5,192)
Town lattice truss (266)
Truss (33,022)
Wooden deck (6,084)

Update Log 

  • March 3, 2014: New photos from Jack Schmidt
  • March 2, 2014: Updated by Dave King: Added NRHP info & imported photo
  • December 8, 2010: Updated by Bill Stephens: Fixed typo in street name
  • November 1, 2009: Updated by Raymond Klein: Added photos. Name changed to Knect's Covered Bridge-Road changed (tenatively) from Springhouse to Knect Bridge) USGS changed from Hellertown to Allentown, PA

Sources 

  • Raymond Klein - Bookshelfthe [at] msn [dot] com
  • Dave King - DKinghawkfan [at] hotmail [dot] com
  • Jack Schmidt - jjturtle [at] earthlink [dot] net
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Comments 

Knecht's Covered Bridge Springfield Twp, PA
Posted December 10, 2009, by Nathan Holth (form3 [at] historicbridges [dot] org)

In response to the below post, obstructing the view of historic bridges happens a lot in Pennsylvania. One of the most frustrating things is when you come upon a beautiful truss bridge and they have mounted the clearance sign so it lays directly on top of a beautiful builder plaque. http://www.historicbridges.org/pennsylvania/ohl/index.htm Not only does it hide a beautiful detail, it can inhibit research on the part of a bridge historian seeking to identify a builder.

It is important to highlight restrictions on historic bridges to protect them from damage and maintain safety but there should be a better attempt to provide this information in a way that it does not interfere severely with the beauty of the historic bridge.

I would comment however that half the time truckers and other heavy traffic ignores the warnings and collapse the bridges anyway.

Knecht's Covered Bridge Springfield Twp, PA
Posted December 10, 2009, by Sara (swignovich [at] qcsd [dot] org)

Did you know that the county has put up about 10 neon yellow signs on either side of this beautiful, historic bridge? It makes it look like a yard sale. Very, very sad.