Manasses Guth Covered Bridge

About

Manasses Guth Covered Bridge carries Lapp Road over Jordan Creek at the eastern edge of Covered Bridge Park in South Whitehall Township, Lehigh County. It is a Burr arch truss about 108 ft long, first built in 1858 and rebuilt in 1882. It is open to vehicles and is owned by Lehigh County.

History

The builder of the original bridge is unknown. The bridge is named for Manasses Guth, who lived in the adjacent stone farmhouse and descended from Lorentz Guth, the first settler in the area in 1745. The 1858 bridge was partly destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1882. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 1, 1980, as part of the Covered Bridges of the Delaware River Watershed nomination.

Design

The Burr arch truss pairs long timber arches with a multiple kingpost truss. The bridge has vertical siding and rests on stone and mortar abutments whose wing walls are capped in concrete. coveredbridges.net gives the width as 18 ft.

Visiting

The bridge is on Lapp Road at the eastern end of Covered Bridge Park, and vehicles can cross it. Discover Lehigh Valley lists posted limits of 9 ft 6 in clearance and 4 tons, and notes a parking lot just past the bridge. Wehr's Covered Bridge stands at the western end of the same park.

Sources: Manasses Guth Covered Bridge (Wikipedia), Manasses Guth Covered Bridge (coveredbridges.net), Covered Bridges of Lehigh Valley (Discover Lehigh Valley)

Photo: Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.