Geeting Covered Bridge, Lewisburg Ohio
The Geeting Covered Bridge was built in 1894 by Evrett S. Sherman, who utilized the Childs-truss method of construction developed and patented in 1846 by Horace Childs. Ohio has the only known covered bridges of this type in the nation and seven of the eight still remaining are in Preble County.
Sherman was a native of New Hampshire who lived in Eaton, Ohio, during the last decades of the 19th Century. A disastrous storm in 1886 washed out several bridges and started Sherman on a 10-year period in which he erected 15 bridges in Preble County. By standardizing his truss members he was able to pre-fabricate much of his materials in his bridge yard on North Maple Street in Eaton during the off-season. Native hardwood was obtained from local sawmills for the floors, hub rails, and roof shingle lath. All the white pine for the framework and siding was purchased from Cobb & Mitchell of Cadillac, Michigan.
Bridge Description
The Geeting Covered Bridge is an example of the little known Childs truss bridges which utilized iron bars as diagonal counterbraces in its multiple kingpost construction. It is a single span bridge set on cut limestone abutments and features a low-pitched gabled roof with shingles. The peak of both gables has a rectangular finial and pendant with a crossbar. Its 100 feet length is sided with vertical boards and has a 7 feet overhang at each end. The level roadway is 15 feet wide and has an overhead clearance of 13 feet.
The Preble County Highway Department has added an oak runway over the original beech floor beams and cut a small window in the center of each sidewall as a vandalism discouragement. The stone abutments have been pointed with a cement-sand stucco by a compressed air technique.
