About
Esther Furnace Covered Bridge crosses Roaring Creek on Esther Furnace Road south of Catawissa, near Lake Glory Campground, in Cleveland Township, Columbia County. Wikipedia and coveredbridges.net place it on the North Branch of Roaring Creek. It is a two-span queenpost bridge, 101 feet long by most sources; coveredbridges.net lists a total length of 95.1 feet.
History
C. W. Eves built the bridge for $1,044.75. Coveredbridges.net and Uncoveringpa date it to 1881; the National Register record gives 1882. The bridge is named for the Esther iron smelting furnace, built in 1817. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 29, 1979, as Furnace Covered Bridge No. 11.
Design
A queenpost truss uses two vertical posts joined by a horizontal beam, with diagonal braces to the ends. This bridge has a support in the middle of the creek, and Uncoveringpa calls it the only two-span covered bridge in the county apart from the Twin Bridges. It has a tarred metal roof.
Visiting
Uncoveringpa notes a spot to pull over on the western end of the bridge and asks visitors not to park on the campground's property. The sources reviewed do not state whether the bridge is currently open to traffic.
Sources: Furnace Covered Bridge No. 11 (Wikipedia), Esther Furnace (coveredbridges.net), Covered Bridges of Columbia County (Uncovering PA)
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