Copeland Covered Bridge, Edinburg New York

Date added: April 14, 2024

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The Copeland Covered Bridge is a rare and substantially intact example of rural timber truss bridge design and construction in the Sacandaga Valley. Erected in 1879 by local craftsmen using the simple queenpost timber truss design, the bridge consists of a 30-foot span carried on fieldstone abutments. Located on a private farm path, the bridge allowed livestock to cross over the deep defile of Beecher's Creek; the Copeland Covered Bridge remained in active use for this purpose until ca. 1930. It is the only known extant example of the covered queenpost type remaining in New York State. The Copeland span is the only one of five wood covered bridges to have survived the inundation that created the man-made Great Sacandaga Lake in 1930.

Edinburg was first settled during the 1790s. A cluster of dwellings and small manufacturing shops soon grew up at Beechers Hollow, where settlers erected a dam across Beecher's Creek near its confluence with the Sacandaga River. The dam furnished water power to local industries for nearly a century. During the early 1880s, a series of devastating fires destroyed the mills, forcing more than half the local population to relocate. A massive state reservoir project begun in the 1920s curtailed further growth of small communities in the Sacandaga watershed. Completed in 1930, the Conklingville dam flooded the Sacandaga Valley, thereby eliminating much of the region's agriculture and timber-based industry.

The history of covered timber bridge construction in New York State spans the period from the first decade of the nineteenth century to the eve of the First World War. The earliest permanent bridges were constructed using readily available local materials and skills. The abundant timber and stone resources found throughout much of New York State made these materials the logical choice for bridge construction during the period of significance. The timber framing skills of local millwrights and joiners were frequently adapted to the construction of timber bridges.

The Copeland Covered Bridge was constructed in 1879 for Arad Copeland (1805-1884). Born in Guilford, Vermont, Copeland moved to Beechers Hollow about 1828. Copeland took up farming; with his brother, Leonard, he established a sawmill and carriage factory on Beecher's Creek. (This extant carriage factory is located upstream from the bridge. The brick Copeland residence built in 1832 also stands in the nearby hamlet.) To provide livestock access to his hillside grazing lands on the south side of Beecher's Creek, landowner Arad Copeland in 1879 contracted for the present covered bridge. Copeland viewed the simple queenpost truss structure with its protective roof and plank sheathing as a more permanent replacement for a succession of open footbridges previously destroyed by ice and spring freshets. Local mason Meltzer Manning laid the bridge abutments; A. Ellithorpe framed the timber superstructure.

Before the Great Sacandaga Reservoir was created, a total of five timber framed covered bridges stood within its watershed. Long spans existed as principal crossings of the Sacandaga River at the hamlets of Batchellerville and Fish House; the Osborn, Vly Creek and Copeland bridges were lesser spans in the area. All were built of local timber and stone by regional builders familiar with conventional timber joinery techniques. The upland location of the Copeland Covered Bridge and its placement on private farmland helped to ensure its survival when the adjacent valley was flooded. in the early twentieth century. The Copeland span is the last extant example of the covered timber truss bridges once relatively common in the Sacandaga Valley. Currently maintained by the Edinburg Historical Society, the Copeland Covered Bridge is a rare and notable historic landmark of the Adirondack foothills region.

Bridge Description

The Copeland Covered Bridge is a small, timber framed, gable-roofed, wood farm bridge located in the town of Edinburg, Saratoga County. The structure is located in the hamlet of Beecher Hollow, where it was built as a private crossing over Beecher Creek. Oriented with its longitudinal axis north/south, the bridge is sited in a ravine on the south side of North Shore Road (present Saratoga County Route 4). The picturesque setting is characterized by rocky, wooded hillsides rising above the stream bed. Beecher's Falls is located approximately 100 yards upstream (west) from the covered bridge.

The web of the Copeland Covered Bridge consists of a queenpost truss structure framed with squared, circular-sawn timbers. Truss panels are assembled utilizing mortise-and-tenon joinery secured with wood pins. With a clear span of 30 feet, the superstructure is supported on abutments of dry-laid fieldstone. The diagonal braces and top chord of the queenpost truss rise six feet above the bottom chord; the vertical posts continue an additional three feet, terminating as supports for the horizontal, squared timbers of the plate. The nine-foot high portals are framed with the same dimension timbers as the trusses. Log stringers supported by squared floor beams constitute the bridge deck structure; the stringers are squared only at the points where they intersect other structural members. The floor beams are suspended from the queenposts using iron stirrup straps secured by metal pins; the ends of the floor beams are notched to receive the hanger straps. The floor surface consists of random-width planks laid laterally to a width of approximately ten feet. The walls are sheathed in one-inch thick, vertical board siding attached to horizontal nailers. A small window opening cut in each wall admits light to the interior. The roof structure consists of a ridge (13 feet above the deck) supported at intervals by rafters resting on the wall plate. The superstructure is sheltered beneath a covering of corrugated, galvanized metal panels.