About
Pool Forge Covered Bridge (also spelled Poole Forge, and once called Yohn's Mill Bridge) crosses the Conestoga River at Churchtown in Caernarvon Township, Lancaster County. It is a single-span double Burr arch truss, about 99 ft long and 15 ft wide, built in 1859. It no longer carries public road traffic: a concrete bridge took over the road in 1973, and the covered bridge now stands on the grounds of Historic Poole Forge.
History
Residents petitioned for a bridge in April 1858, a contract was signed in May 1859, and the bridge was finished that August, according to Lancaster County Magazine. Levi Fink and Elias McMellen built it, and coveredbridges.net gives the cost as $1,219. Older accounts describe the bridge as private property that served for a time as a storage barn before a road was added to carry vehicles. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 11, 1980, and is also a contributing structure in the Poole Forge historic district. Caernarvon Township has owned the Poole Forge park property since 2005.
Design
The Burr arch truss pairs a long timber arch with a multiple kingpost truss. At Pool Forge, steel hanger rods were added, and the arch meets a concrete abutment. The exterior is painted red, and the approaches are red as well, without the white trim seen on many Lancaster County bridges. The interior is unpainted.
Visiting
The bridge is at Historic Poole Forge, 1940 Main Street in Narvon (Churchtown). Road traffic uses the concrete bridge beside it, and the covered bridge is part of the park grounds rather than a public road.
Sources: Pool Forge Covered Bridge (Wikipedia), Poole Forge Covered Bridge (coveredbridges.net), Historic Poole Forge (Lancaster County Magazine)
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