About
Mood's Covered Bridge carries Blooming Glen Road over the East Branch Perkiomen Creek in East Rockhill Township, just outside Perkasie in Bucks County. The original Town truss bridge was built in 1874 and was about 120 ft long, the fourth longest covered bridge in the county. The present bridge is a 2008 replica that carries one-way vehicle traffic, about 2,000 vehicles a day according to WHYY.
History
The bridge was refurbished in 1962, given steel support beams in 1974, and repaired after a truck strike in 1993. A trash truck struck it in January 2004. On June 22, 2004, arsonists set it on fire and almost completely destroyed it. Six people were sentenced and ordered to contribute toward the rebuilding. The bridge was removed from the National Register of Historic Places, where it had been listed on December 1, 1980, on August 19, 2004. PennDOT built a replica using period-style framing, and it reopened on February 15, 2008.
Design
The replacement copies the original Town lattice truss of crisscrossing planks. Its timbers were treated with fire retardant, and a piece of the original burned truss was built into the new structure.
Visiting
From PA 313 (Swamp Road), turn onto Branch Road, go 1.9 miles, then turn left onto Blooming Glen Road. The bridge sits next to an athletic field, and parking is on the far side of the bridge.
Sources: Mood's Covered Bridge (Wikipedia), Mood's Covered Bridge (Bucks County Covered Bridge Society), Bucks County covered bridges tour (WHYY)
Photo: CrimsonDragonPhotographicArts, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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