Hassenplug Covered Bridge

About

Hassenplug Covered Bridge carries North Fourth Street over Buffalo Creek in Mifflinburg, Union County, less than a mile from downtown. It is a Burr truss bridge about 80 ft long, built in 1825, and it is open to both vehicles and pedestrians. It is the oldest covered bridge in Pennsylvania, and it has been called the oldest in the United States, a distinction also claimed by the Hyde Hall Bridge in New York.

History

The bridge was built in 1825, patterned after a design by Theodore Burr. It is named for the Hassenplug family, who lived in the nearby brick house. In 1959 the county removed the original wood floor and built a steel bridge inside the wooden structure, with a steel grate floor. In 2022 Lancaster County Timber Frames repaired the bridge in place and replaced the steel grate with wide wooden planks. The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 8, 1980. In August 2025 Mifflinburg marked the bridge's 200th anniversary, and the Theodore Burr Covered Bridge Society of Pennsylvania and the borough installed two new historical markers.

Design

A Burr truss pairs a long timber arch on each side with a multiple kingpost truss. At Hassenplug the wooden members are joined with wooden pins and iron bolts.

Visiting

The bridge is on North Fourth Street in Mifflinburg and remains open to traffic. There is room to pull off on the side nearest town, and the bridge is the trailhead for the one-mile Koon's Trail.

Sources: Hassenplug Bridge (Wikipedia), Mifflinburg celebrates 200 years of historic Hassenplug Covered Bridge (Daily Item), Covered Bridges of Union County (Uncovering PA)

Photo: Ruhrfisch, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.