About
Shoemaker Covered Bridge crosses West Branch Run in Pine Township, Columbia County, north of Iola. It is a queenpost truss bridge about 49 ft long; coveredbridges.net lists a total length of 50.9 ft. The bridge is closed to vehicles and now carries only foot traffic.
History
T.S. Christian built the bridge in 1881 for $322. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 29, 1979. A restoration from 1991 to 1994 added steel members, replaced truss members and tension tie rods, and installed new floorboards and stringers, at a cost of $450,000.
Design
A queenpost truss uses two vertical posts tied together by a horizontal beam at the top, with diagonal braces, and suits short spans like this one. Shoemaker's largest span is 39 ft and its deck is 12.1 ft wide. A few picnic tables have been set up inside the bridge.
Visiting
The bridge is just off Route 442 in Pine Township. Uncoveringpa advises driving to the end of the road and parking there. The bridge itself is open to pedestrians only.
Sources: Shoemaker Covered Bridge (Wikipedia), Shoemaker Covered Bridge (coveredbridges.net), Covered Bridges of Columbia County (Uncovering PA)
Photo: Ruhrfisch, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Location
Pine Township, Columbia County, PASimilar Bridges in category
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