Bartram's Covered Bridge

About

Bartram's Covered Bridge crosses Crum Creek beside Goshen Road near Boot Road, on the line between Willistown Township in Chester County and Newtown Township in Delaware County, west of Newtown Square. It is a Burr truss bridge, about 80 ft long (the Theodore Burr Covered Bridge Society gives 81 ft) and 13 ft wide, built in 1860. It has been closed to vehicles since 1941, when a modern bridge on Goshen Road replaced it.

History

Ferdinand Wood built the bridge in 1860, and the two counties shared its cost of $1,133. It is named for Mordecai Bartram, an adjoining landowner. It is the last of more than 30 covered bridges that once stood in Delaware County. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 10, 1980. The Marple Newtown Historical Society first rehabilitated it in the 1960s, and a major restoration followed in 1995. Stone foundation work was finished in 2024, and timber truss and deck work began in 2025 and was completed in May 2026. The Newtown Square Historical Society is raising money to replace the siding.

Design

The Burr truss pairs a timber arch with a multiple kingpost truss. Bartram's has slanted plank portals, a feature the Newtown Square Historical Society calls unique in Pennsylvania.

Visiting

The bridge sits in a small roadside park on Goshen Road at Boot Road. A volunteer commission from Newtown and Willistown Townships maintains it. Uncovering PA notes room to park along Boot Road and reported in 2023 that a gate blocked the entrance.

Sources: Bartram's Covered Bridge (Newtown Square Historical Society), Bartram's Covered Bridge (Theodore Burr Covered Bridge Society of PA), Bartram's Covered Bridge (Wikipedia)

Photo: Smallbones, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.