About
Van Sant Covered Bridge, also spelled Van Sandt and once called the Beaver Dam Bridge, carries Covered Bridge Road over Pidcock Creek south of New Hope in Solebury Township, Bucks County. It is a single-span Town truss bridge, 86 ft long and 15 ft wide, built in 1875. It is open to vehicles.
History
The Bucks County Covered Bridge Society credits the bridge to G. Arndt and P. S. Naylor, who built it in 1875. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 1, 1980, as part of the Covered Bridges of the Delaware River Watershed nomination. Local lore calls it a "crybaby bridge," a ghost story told about a number of covered bridges.
Design
The bridge uses a Town lattice truss of crisscrossing planks fastened with wooden pegs, carried in one span.
Visiting
From River Road (PA 32), go west on Aquetong Road 0.4 miles, then turn left onto Covered Bridge Road and go 1.0 mile. The road becomes Van Sant Road past the bridge. WHYY notes there is no place to pull over at the bridge.
Sources: Van Sant Covered Bridge (Wikipedia), Van Sant 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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