Carrolton Covered Bridge

The Carrollton Covered Bridge carries County Route 36, or Carrollton Road, over the Buckhannon River near Carrollton in Barbour County, West Virginia. It is the second-longest and third-oldest surviving covered bridge in the state. Built in 1855-1856 by Emmet J. and Daniel O’Brien, the bridge originally carried the Middle Fork Turnpike, which connected the Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike with a road to Clarksburg. ^{1 4}

The bridge used the patented Burr Arch truss system, combining Burr arches with two multiple Kingpost trusses to create a clear span. ^{1 4} Its construction cost included $2,928 for the abutments and $1,891 for the superstructure. However, unforeseen instability of the river banks made it necessary to increase the width of the superstructure by two feet and the length of the wing walls by 20 feet, adding $200 to the cost of the superstructure. ⁴

After the bridge was declared unsafe in 1962, its wood decking was replaced with a concrete deck, and a one-lane-wide sidewalk was added, along with concrete piers and abutments, in 1963. ⁴

The Carrollton Covered Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 4, 1981. It was renovated in 1987 and again in 2002, when Hoke Brothers Contracting of Union completed a $389,609 rehabilitation. ¹ On August 10, 2017, the bridge was heavily damaged in a fire that was determined to be arson. ² It was restored in 2022 by West Virginia Division of Highways crews using a mixture of salvaged and new timber. ³