McConnell's Mill Covered Bridge

About

McConnell's Mill Covered Bridge carries McConnells Mill Road over Slippery Rock Creek beside the historic gristmill in McConnells Mill State Park, Slippery Rock Township, Lawrence County. It is a Howe truss, about 96 ft long, built in 1874, and it is open to vehicles.

History

Daniel Kennedy built the present gristmill in 1868 after an earlier mill burned in 1852. McConnell, Wilson and Company bought the mill in 1875, and it closed in 1928. In 1946 more than 2,500 acres were sold to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, and the site opened as McConnells Mill State Park in 1957. The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 27, 1980, as part of the Lawrence County Covered Bridges nomination, and it was documented by the Historic American Engineering Record as HAER PA-458. It and the Banks Covered Bridge are the only covered bridges left in Lawrence County.

Design

The Howe truss uses timber diagonals with vertical iron rods, and it was the first truss type to connect wood with iron rods. Wikipedia counts this as one of only four Howe truss covered bridges left in Pennsylvania, and SAH Archipedia as one of three in western Pennsylvania. The bridge sits on stone foundations and is now supported by steel girders.

Visiting

The bridge is on McConnells Mill Road in the park, next to the mill. Vehicles can cross it. Uncovering PA notes a small parking lot next to the bridge and says that on busy days visitors may need to park farther away and walk.

Sources: McConnell's Mill Covered Bridge (Wikipedia), McConnell's Mill (SAH Archipedia), Visiting the covered bridges of Lawrence County (Uncovering PA)

Photo: Nyttend, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.