yesteryear

Back to First Page

Covered Spans of Yesteryear
Documenting North America's Lost Covered Bridges

Twin Bridges of Penacook, NH, Dick Roy Collection
Twin Bridges of Penacook, NH
Dick Roy Collection

WHO ARE WE?
During the summer of 2003 a small group of covered bridge enthusiasts decided to take on the challenge of creating a list of all covered bridges ever known to exist in the United States and Canada. Covered Spans of Yesteryear was created to serve this purpose. Although many covered bridge organizations have been very helpful by providing information, the Covered Spans of Yesteryear project is not associated with or financially supported by any organization.











John Day Bridge near Astoria, OR, Oregon Highway Comm. Photo
John Day Bridge near Astoria, OR
Oregon Highway Comm. Photo

OUR PURPOSE
While there is a considerable amount of information about existing covered bridges, details of those that are no longer in existence is more difficult to find. The purpose of this project is to gather the details of those lost bridges into a single location. It is our hope that this site will be educational, informative and serve as an excellent resource for anyone interested in covered bridges, past or present.











Possibly Concord NH, Dick Roy Collection
Possibly Concord NH
Dick Roy Collection

HOW CAN YOU HELP?
If you would like to provide information on covered bridges that no longer exist from a state or county, we certainly welcome your assistance. Methods have been designed to assist you in your research and also indicate the type of data being recorded for each bridge. Please contact Trish Kane for more information.

SUBMIT YOUR DATA
Data can be submitted in a number of ways.
On-line: Go to www.1ostbridges.org and click on the link to "Add Data". You will see a form to enter your bridge information. Note - access to this area requires a password. Contact Trish for username and password information.
Spreadsheet: An Excel spreadsheet has been developed to record bridge data. Once completed, this information can be easily imported directly into our database.
Paper forms: If you do not have a computer or prefer to use a paper form, we have one available to assist with this project.
Other options: If your information is already in a database or spreadsheet format, contact Bill Caswell before using the other methods mentioned above. Many forms of electronic data can be directly imported into the database eliminating the need to retype these details.

Two Bayou Bridge, Arkansas, Bill Caswell Collection
Two Bayou Bridge, Camden, Arkansas
Built c1860, lost in the1950's
Bill Caswell Collection

SUBMIT PICTURES
Wouldn't it be great to have pictures of all known covered bridges? That may not be possible, but with your help we can document many of them There are a number of ways you can help.
Send pictures to be scanned. If you do not have access to a scanner or do not have the time to do it yourself, send the pictures to Bill Caswell. All pictures will be returned in a timely manner. Please do not mail rare or unique original photos, only copies. We do not want to risk them being lost in the mail.
Scan your own. If you scan your own pictures, please put them in a JPEG format at a minimum resolution of 150 dpi. (300 dpi is preferred.) These images can be emailed to Bill Caswell or sent to him on a CD.
Please note any known pertinent data about the pictures such as photographer or year taken. Proper credit will be given to any pictures used on the website.

CAN YOU IDENTIFY?
As we progress with Covered Spans of Yesteryear, we will no doubt come across photos of bridges that we will not be able to identify. If you would like to try to assist us in this area, we welcome your thoughts and suggestions. Please visit our website and check out the section entitled Can You Identify These Bridges? If you recognize any of the photographs shown there, please let us know. Be sure to check this section often as new, unidentified photos will be added frequently.


Possibly New Hampshire, Dick Roy Collection
Possibly New Hampshire
Dick Roy Collection

A WORD OF THANKS...
Any new endeavor will only be as successful as the individuals willing to devote their personal time and effort to it. Its success, or demise, depends on the combined efforts of covered bridge enthusiasts and organizations across the United States and Canada. We would like to express our sincere thanks to those of you who have already assisted with this project by submitting information and photographs for the site. We have come a long way in a very short period of time but there is still much work to be done. We appreciate your support.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information about this project and how you can help, contact any of the following individuals:
Trish Kane bobtrish68@frontiemet.net (607) 674-9656
Bill Caswell bill@lostbridges.org (603) 753-8244
Dick Roy dickroycbl@juno.com (603) 623-8406
Bill Cockrell wildbill-salem@worldnet.att.net (503) 399-0436

Return to top

The contents of this file were taken from a lostbridges brochure
Coded by Joe Nelson, P.O Box 267, Jericho, VT 05465-0267
This file posted April 24, 2005