Locust Creek Covered Bridge, Hillsboro West Virginia
Very little information is known about the history of the Locust Creek Covered Bridge.
A search of the court records supplied no further information than that given in a July 1979 publication of The Pocahontas Times, of Marlinton, entitled "Pioneer Days." That information referred to George B. Cochran, who in 1879, was paid $20.00 by the Pocahontas County Court for work done on the bridge. The article also mentioned that extensive repairs were made to the bridge in 1904, but no court records could be found to verify the making of repairs in 1904 or in the few years preceding or following 1904. The date of construction of the bridge is thought to have been in the 1870s, following a petition which was made to the county court to locate a road at or near the Josiah Beard mill, which was located near the bridge.
The Locust Creek Bridge is the only covered bridge remaining in Pocahontas County and exhibits a truly unique example of a modified Warren truss system. The late notable two-span bridge at Renick, West Virginia used the same Warren framing system. Very few Warren trusses were used for covered bridges in North America. It is significant that there were at least two in West Virginia at one time.
Bridge Description
The Locust Creek Covered Bridge is 113 feet 9 inches long, and the center-to-center distance between the top chords is 13 feet 6 inches. It has board-and-batten siding and a standing seam metal roof.
Except for a few minor modifications, which include the center vertical, the small end panel-diagonals, and the discontinuity of the distinct "W" pattern at mid-span, the truss is a double Warren system consisting of a series of two 5-foot x 7-inch double diagonals and 7-inch square single-member counter diagonals, which fit between and are bolted to the double diagonals. The single diagonal ends extend through the top and bottom chords, both consisting of four 5 x 9-inch members, while the double diagonal ends butt into the single diagonals. Cross-bracing at each panel functions as the only significant lateral bracing since there are no transverse roof beams except at the ends of the bridge. The bridge is undergirded with three steel bents on the west side and two timber ones on the east side and does not appear to have any other major modifications.
General view of bridge (1979)
