#329 Bridgeport Covered Bridge #329
by William Lum
Title
#329 Bridgeport Covered Bridge #329
Artist
William Lum
Medium
Painting - Watercolor
Description
I went on a field trip with the Lincoln Plein Air group to the “Covered Bridge” in Penn Valley, CA on Highway 49. The bridge is one of the features of South Yuba River State Park. I painted a view of the bridge on opposite side of the Yuba River from the main park visitor’s center. The details of the bridge construction was important historically so I took the time to detail that out only finishing about 40% of the painting on site and the rest was done at home.
Covered Bridge History - David Wood bought a saw mill at Forest City in 1858. As soon as a new bridge design had been selected, he quickly set the mill to producing douglas fir timbers for the structural members and sugar pine shingles for the roof and siding for a new bridge. In the 1860´s this bridge was constantly a bustle day and night, with passenger and commercial traffic beating a path to the silver mines of Virginia City via the Henness Pass.
Neither a truss nor an arch alone could span the 208 feet across the South Yuba River, so Wood decided on an eastern US design that combined a truss and arch into a single structure. The original ridge line was 251 feet including the weather wings at each end. Today´s bridge is 229 feet long on the ridge line and is the longest single-span covered bridge in the world. The bridge combines a Howe truss, patented in 1840, and a Burr arch, the basis of many bridges built in Chester County, Pennsylvania around 1850
In 2011 the bridge was closed to pedestrian traffic again due to deterioration of structural members. Stabilization was completed in early 2015. The bridge was listed on the National Register July 14, 1971. It is also California Registered Landmark number 390, listed August 26, 1947, and American Society of Civil Engineers Historic Civil Engineering Landmark 14-1970.
This 15” X 22” watercolor painting was done on Arches, 140 lb, rough watercolor paper.
Uploaded
September 14th, 2018
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Viewed 215 Times - Last Visitor from Ottawa, ON - Canada on 04/25/2024 at 9:13 PM
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