Burkeville Covered Bridge
Franklin County, Conway. Built 1870-1871, 106 ft. long. A regionally rare multiple kingrod bridge with iron tensioning verticals, reopened to vehicles in 2013 after decades closed.
The Burkeville Covered Bridge, also called the Conway Covered Bridge, carries Main Poland Road over the South River in Conway. An earlier bridge on the site is thought to date to 1850, but a major flood damaged it in 1869, and the current bridge went up in 1870-1871 to replace it. It's a regionally rare example of a multiple kingrod design reinforced with iron tensioning verticals — essentially a modified Howe truss — and one of only a handful of 19th-century covered bridges still standing in Massachusetts.
The bridge's roof partially collapsed under heavy snow in 1975, and the town's own volunteers turned out to restore it rather than call in a contractor. It held on for another decade before safety concerns forced its closure in 1985, and it sat closed to vehicles for the better part of thirty years. Conway finally completed a full renovation and reopened the Burkeville to vehicular traffic in November 2013. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.