The Sonestown Covered Bridge is a covered bridge over Muncy Creek in Davidson Township, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, United States. Built around 1850, it is long and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1980. () It is named for the nearby unincorporated village of Sonestown in Davidson Township, and is also known as the Davidson Covered Bridge. It was built to provide access to a grist mill which operated until the early 20th century.
Pennsylvania had the first covered bridge in the United States and has the most of any state in the 21st century. In most places, they were a transition between stone and metal bridges, with the roof and sides protecting the wooden structure from weather. The Sonestown bridge is a Burr arch truss type with a load-bearing arch sandwiching multiple vertical king posts for strength and rigidity. The bridge construction is cruder than the other two surviving covered bridges in Sullivan County, with each Burr arch formed from six straight beams set at angles instead of a smooth curve.
The bridge was repaired in 1969 and after flood damage in 1996, 2005, 2013, and 2020. It was also restored in 2001. Despite the repairs and restoration, however, the bridge structure's sufficiency rating on the National Bridge Inventory was only 21.3 percent in 2016, and its condition was deemed "basically intolerable requiring high priority of corrective action". It is the shortest covered bridge in the county, but as of 2020 is open only to pedestrian traffic.
Overview The covered bridge crosses Muncy Creek in Davidson Township on Champion Hill Road (Township Road 310), just east of U.S. Route 220. The village of Sonestown is north of the bridge on Route 220, giving the Sonestown Covered Bridge its name. The bridge is also east of the village of Muncy Valley along Route 220. Its official name on the NRHP is Sonestown Covered Bridge. It is also known as the Davidson Covered Bridge, for its township. Sullivan County is located in north-central Pennsylvania, about northwest of Philadelphia and east-northeast of Pittsburgh.
The area that became Davidson Township was first settled in 1806, and was incorporated as a township in 1833. Note: Davidson Township was formed in 1833 from part of Shrewsbury Township while both were still part of Lycoming County. Within the township, George Sones built a sawmill and founded the unincorporated village of Sonestown in 1843. All of these events occurred before Sullivan County was formed from part of Lycoming County on March 14, 1847. The bridge was built in 1850, and in the late 19th century Sonestown "boomed like crazy" as the lumber industry grew in Sullivan County. The village was then home to a plant that manufactured the staves for making barrels. It had a clothespin factory from 1903 to 1929 but lost almost all industry by the 1930s. As of 1996, Sonestown had a population of about 200, most of whom commuted to work in Muncy, Montoursville, and Williamsport. In 1996 the village had a few stores and an inn with a restaurant, attracting tourists and hunters.
History Background
The first covered bridge in the United States was built in 1800 over the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. According to Susan M. Zacher, author of The Covered Bridges of Pennsylvania: A Guide, the first covered bridges of the Burr arch truss design were also built in the state. Pennsylvania is estimated to have once had at least 1,500 covered bridges and is believed to have had the most in the country between 1830 and 1875. In 2001, Pennsylvania had more surviving historic covered bridges than any other state, with 221 remaining in 40 of its 67 counties.
Covered bridges were a transition between stone and metal bridges, the latter made of cast iron or steel. In 19th-century Pennsylvania, lumber was an abundant resource for bridge construction, but wood did not last long when exposed to the elements. The roof and enclosed sides of covered bridges protected the structural elements, allowing some of these bridges to survive for well over a century. A Burr arch truss consists of a load-bearing arch sandwiching multiple king posts, resulting in a stronger and more rigid structure than one made of either element alone. Although there were 30 covered bridges in Sullivan County in 1890, only five were left by 1954, and as of 2020 only three remain: Forksville, Hillsgrove, and Sonestown.
Construction and description All three Sullivan County covered bridges were built in or with Burr arch trusses. At the time of its construction, the Sonestown bridge was the fifth covered bridge in Sullivan County. The bridge crossed Muncy Creek to provide access to Johnny Hazen's gristmill, which was also built in 1850. Although most sources do not list the builder of the Sonestown bridge, two newspaper articles on the remaining Sullivan County covered bridges reported that Sadler Rogers (or Rodgers) had designed or possibly built it as well. Rogers, a native of Forksville, built both the Forksville and Hillsgrove bridges in 1850, when he was 18 years old. After the 2011 flood damage was restored, a plaque was placed on the bridge's west portal identifying Rogers as its builder.Note: Follow this link for a photograph of the plaque stating Sadler Rogers was the builder.
On July 24, 1980, the Sonestown bridge was listed on the NRHP in a Multiple Property Submission of seven Covered Bridges of Bradford, Sullivan and Lycoming Counties. The Sonestown bridge is also on the 2016 Federal Highway Administration National Bridge Inventory (NBI), which lists the covered bridge as long, with a roadway wide, and a maximum load of . However, the maximum load posted beside the bridge itself is only . According to the NRHP, the bridge's "road surface width" is , which is only sufficient for a single lane of traffic.
According to the NRHP form, the Sonestown bridge "is of lighter construction than similar bridges in south-eastern Pennsylvania". The covered bridge rests on abutments of stone and mortar, which have been reinforced with concrete. The portals are flanked by wing walls below the level of the road; these extend out from the abutments at an angle and "retain the soil of the approach embankment". Note: See page 80 and Figure 69 for more information on wing walls.
The bridge deck is made of wide boards laid perpendicular to the axis of the bridge, with two runners on top of the deck which run the length of the bridge. The Burr arches which support the bridge are cruder than those in the other two Sullivan County covered bridges; they are not smooth "continuous arcs, but several straight segments joined at an angle". The top of the Burr arch on the south (downstream) side of the bridge is noticeably lower than the top of the arch on the north (upstream) side.Note: Follow this link for a photograph of the interior of the bridge with the south (downstream) side of the bridge on the right.
Vertical boards cover the sides and portals of the bridge and are painted red. The bridge has openings between the eaves and the siding which run the length of the bridge on both sides. Since the 2013 restoration, it has a small window in the center of each side (it had no windows before). The gable roof is covered with wooden shake shingles. A sign listing the vertical clearance as is posted above each portal. The bridge has no steel reinforcements.
Attitudes towards covered bridges in Sullivan County changed considerably in the last half of the 20th century. Two of the five bridges that remained in 1954 were razed by 1970, when the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation considered tearing down the Forksville bridge (but renovated it because of its historic nature and appeal to tourists). The Hillsgrove Covered Bridge was added to the NRHP in 1973, and the two other bridges were added in 1980. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission requires its approval for renovation work on NRHP bridges in the state, and forbids the destruction of these bridges.
Use, flooding, and restorations
In the 19th century, the Sonestown Covered Bridge survived major floods on March 1, 1865 and June 1, 1889, that destroyed other bridges in the West Branch Susquehanna Valley. The latter flood was caused by the same storm system that caused the Johnstown Flood, which killed over 2,200 people. Note: ISBN refers to the Heritage Books July 1996 reprint. URL is to a scan of the 1892 version with some OCR typos. In 1885, the Williamsport and North Branch Railroad line along Muncy Creek reached Sonestown, passing just east of the bridge. The railroad carried lumber, coal, and passengers until it closed in 1938.
The covered bridge was built to provide access to a gristmill, and the 1915 state highway map of Sullivan County shows a mill just downstream of the bridge on the east bank of Muncy Creek. The 1941 map (using data from 1939) no longer shows a water-powered mill there, although it does show two buildings on the east bank of the creek, with one just upstream and one just downstream of the bridge. Both of these buildings had disappeared by 1999. The NRHP form states that the bridge had been recently repaired in 1969, and that additional maintenance work was needed. The repairs done at that time included replacing some of the siding panels, reinforcing the abutments with concrete, and "very minor addition of steel to the truss structure".
In January 1996, there was major flooding throughout Pennsylvania. A blizzard from January 6–8 produced up to of snow, which was followed on January 19–21 by more than of rain with temperatures as high as and winds up to . The rain and snowmelt caused flooding throughout Pennsylvania, and ice jams made the flooding worse on many streams. In neighboring Lycoming County, flooding on Lycoming Creek in and near Williamsport killed six and caused millions of dollars in damage, and an ice jam on Plunketts Creek destroyed a mid-19th century stone arch bridge which was also on the NRHP.
The pressure of the flood on the Sonestown Covered Bridge moved the center of the structure almost downstream. This and other major damage closed the bridge from January until late December 1996. It was one of 69 publicly owned bridges in Pennsylvania destroyed or closed by the flooding. Sullivan County owns the bridge and paid for its repair, which was mandated by the state since it is listed on the NRHP. The original bid was for $93,000, and the repair was done by Lycoming Supply Inc. of Williamsport for $89,000 over 60 days between mid-November and Christmas. The bridge's closure caused a detour for those who normally used the bridge to reach their homes and businesses.
Even after the repair was completed, vehicles that were heavier or larger than the bridge's original limits could not use it. Since beer trucks could not cross it, deliveries to the American Legion Post southeast of the bridge were made with a hand cart instead. On November 12, 2000, a new "Veterans Memorial Bridge" just downstream of the covered bridge was dedicated. The new bridge is also part of Champion Hill Road (Township Road 310), and allows all vehicles to cross Muncy Creek. Note: this article incorrectly identifies the bridge as crossing Loyalsock CreekSee this photo of the bridge's date plaque. The new bridge first appeared on the official Sullivan County Highway map in 2002: