Historic Bridge Foundation
P.O. Box 66245
Austin, Texas 78766
Phone 512/407-8898

For information on
preserving bridges
or other information
about bridges,
please contact:
Kitty Henderson,
Executive Director

In the News

Bunker Hill Covered Bridge in Claremont, NC, designated National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark

New Federal Replacement Fund Guidelines Considered (Announced)

Bunker Hill Covered Bridge Designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark

Press Release
DCF Engineering, Inc.
PO Box 879
Cary, NC 27512-0879
For more information contact:
David C. Fischetti, P.E.
(919) 467-3853

Houston, Texas — August 13, 2001 — The committee on the History and Heritage of American Civil Engineering of the American Society of Civil Engineers has designated the Bunker Hill Covered Bridge in Claremont, North Carolina, as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark at its meeting on July 30, 2001.

In 1895, at the request of Catawba County Commissioners, Andy L. Ramsour constructed the Bunker Hill Covered Bridge over Lyles Creek. Bunker Hill Bridge is on Island Ford Road which served as a route to transport British prisoners of war after the 1781 Battle of Cowpens during the American Revolution.

The North Carolina Section of ASCE is in the process of coordinating the dedication ceremony that will occur on November 3, 2001. The Bunker Hill Covered Bridge is the only remaining example of the Improved Lattice Truss timber bridge patented by Gen. Herman Haupt (1817 -1905) in 1839. Haupt was Chief of Military Railroads for the Union Army during the Civil War. In this capacity, he contributed to the outcome of the Civil War, particularly the Battle of Gettysburg, by repairing bridges and ensuring Union supply lines. This Philadelphia born civil and military engineer, author, inventor, and industrialist was one of the first to develop a rational method of truss analysis.

Haupt’s improved lattice truss bridge was a response to Ithiel Town’s 1820 and 1835 patents for the plank lattice timber truss. Haupt used the analytical methods he developed in the 1840’s to design a more efficient lattice truss which consisted of web members positioned only at locations which required support. Redundant members were removed, resulting in the improved lattice truss as described in his book "General Theory of Bridge Construction" published in 1851.

General Haupt was keenly aware that his knowledge and ability as a civil engineer was vital in ensuring the health, safety, and welfare of the general public. "With even greater simplicity and economy than the ordinary lattice, it appears to be entirely free from its defects; and possessing many of the essential requisites of a good bridge, with a capability of extension to spans of considerable length, it seems to be unusually well adapted to the wants of a community with whom economy is an object" H. Haupt, 1890.

In the Bunker Hill Covered Bridge, with the skin removed, we see the handiwork of Herman Haupt. During the 1987 rehabilitation, Arnold Graton, master bridgewright of Ashland, New Hampshire, removed the sideboarding and roofing from the bridge in order to gain access to chord members which required repair. Deteriorated chord members which were replaced in kind consisted of bottom chord members at the four bearing corners of the bridge. Arnold Graton replaced badly decayed or missing members with solid timbers of equal size which were ripped from a 12x14 timber, 38 feet in length. This old dense southern pine bridge timber had been in storage in the Graton’s yard in New Hampshire since the 1950’s. By removing the sideboarding and roofing, the incredibly beautiful framing of the Bunker Hill Covered Bridge was revealed.

The temporary removal of the sideboarding of the Bunker Hill Covered Bridge by Graton was reminiscent of Haupt’s order, as Chief of Military Railroads during the Civil War, to remove the roofing and sideboarding of the covered bridges in the vicinity of Washington D.C., to prevent the Confederates from easily burning those vital links.

Though this particular structure played but a small role in the development of the nation, covered bridges which no longer exist played a pivotal role in the growth of the United States. The development of rational analytical methods for truss design in the 1830’s and 1840’s paralleled the growth and expansion of the railroads. Covered bridge structures were the first to benefit from methods developed by early civil engineers such as Whipple, Long, and Haupt. It is important to recognize unique and originally innovative Civil Engineering structures such as the Bunker Hill Covered Bridge as examples and reminders of the life’s work of great American Civil Engineering pioneers such as General Herman Haupt.

The Bunker Hill Covered Bridge is important because it is a reminder of General Herman Haupt’s technical genius. The bridge itself is certainly not important as an innovative solution which would revolutionize the field of bridge building. It is very important to the history of technology because it is one of the first systems which resulted from the application of methods of engineering analysis based on mathematics which were developed in the 1840’s.

In covered bridges we see an emerging technology, pioneered by men such as Haupt, which was soon applied to both timber and iron bridges as American civil engineers rose to the challenges presented by a developing railroad industry.

Founded in 1852, ASCE represents more than 123,000 civil engineers worldwide. It is the United States’ oldest engineering society.

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New Federal Replacement Fund Guidelines Considered (Announced)

Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) officials conceded at a national conference that Bridge Replacement Fund guidelines are actually at odds with the goal of preserving historic bridges. Current guidelines provide 80% of the cost of building new bridges, but preclude using these monies to restore historic bridges to their fully functional condition. FHWA are conducting an internal review of this process to address the stated goal of encouraging bridge preservation. For more information or to state your concerns on this issue, check out their website at www.fhwa.dot.gov

The Oak Forest Bridge over the Guadalupe River in Gonzales County could be saved if FHWA approves more flexible guidelines

To learn more about the Oak Forest Bridge visit Texas Bridges.

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© 2003 Historic Bridge Foundation. Photographs by Texas Department of Transportation.