Rishel Covered Bridge

About

Rishel Covered Bridge crosses Chillisquaque Creek east of Montandon, on the line between East and West Chillisquaque Townships in Northumberland County. It is a single-span Burr arch truss bridge built in 1830. Coveredbridges.net gives its total length as 121 feet, while Wikipedia, drawing on the National Register record, gives about 110 feet. It still carries cars, with a height bar in front of the bridge to stop overheight vehicles.

History

John Shriner Jr. and Zacheus Braley built the bridge in 1830. It was once promoted as the oldest covered bridge in the nation on the strength of an 1812 date linked to James Moore II, but coveredbridges.net reports that the 1812 claim was disproven in the 1980s. The bridge has been refurbished several times, including in 1990. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 8, 1979. After later flood damage, Northumberland County had the bridge rehabilitated with county and FEMA funding, to a design by Stahl Sheaffer Engineering that replaced timbers, decking and siding in kind and repaired the abutments.

Design

A Burr arch truss pairs a long timber arch with a multiple kingpost truss on each side of the bridge. Coveredbridges.net lists a largest span of 90.9 feet, a deck width of 16.4 feet and a vertical clearance of 12 feet. Stahl Sheaffer gives a length of 91 feet 6 inches, which matches the main span rather than the overall length.

Visiting

The bridge is on Township Road 573, east of Montandon. It is open to vehicles under the height limit set by the bar at the approach.

Sources: Rishel Covered Bridge (coveredbridges.net), Rishel Covered Bridge (Wikipedia), Keefer Station and Rishel Covered Bridges (Stahl Sheaffer Engineering)

Photo: Jakec, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.