Hunterdon County was once well supplied with covered bridges. Now the lonely last one stands at what has long been known as “Green Sergeant’s Mills.” Some say that there is no other such bridge in New Jersey today. I cannot vouch for that; but the covered bridge is almost a thing of the past.
Final episode in the four (and a half) part saga of the Covered Bridge.
Click on the topic “bridges” in the right column to see the other posts.
Once Commissioner Palmer had made his announcement, the only thing needed was an Act of the Legislature to legitimate the funding. On April 3, 1961, a bill was enacted into law permitting the State Highway Department to spend the money it needed to build the bridge.
This is the third installment of a short history of the last covered bridge in New Jersey. The first installment is here and the second one here, and addendum here.
An unanticipated threat to the bridge arrived in the early 20th century when automobiles began to be widely used. Little damage could be done to such a solid structure by a horse and wagon. A car or truck, on the other hand, could do quite a lot.
For drivers, the biggest challenge was dealing with the single lane of traffic through the bridge. With so little sight distance, drivers found it necessary to stop and honk before entering the bridge. This practice was still being used in the mid 1950s when Helen Carl Maliszewski and Kay Sherman Larson were riding through the bridge with their parents.
After publishing my last post on the Covered Bridge, in which I described Eric Sloane’s encounter with a fellow who lived near the bridge named Sparky, I came across a drawing that was published many years ago in the Hunterdon Democrat, that shows the Gelvin house, the one-lane covered bridge, and the old Brown hatchery building.
The Covered Bridge has been a landmark for quite a long time. Next year the bridge will be 140 years old—not bad for a bridge. It has had a lot of work done on it over the years, and some adaptations have been made to allow it to continue standing. I’ve been making adaptations to some of my articles as well. This second essay on the Covered Bridge is adapted from an article that first appeared in the Delaware Township newsletter, “The Bridge,” and from an article published in the Hunterdon Historical Newsletter, Fall 2003 issue.
Some time ago I wrote a series of articles on the Rake Cemetery in Delaware Township. You can find the first of them here. In the second post (here), I mentioned that both John and Else Rake did not have gravestones in this cemetery, even though they were the first owners of the property. I also speculated that Else Rake, might be buried in the Rockafellar Cemetery in East Amwell. I have since learned that is not the case.
The latest issue of the Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey is out (vol. 86, no. 1), and the first article, “Burlington Waterlots Surveyed,” is just amazing. C. Miller Biddle, a descendant of the original Biddle family, has written a detailed description of the ownership of the water lots in the town of Burlington when they were first laid out.
He has also given us succeeding owners, sometimes into the early 19th century. He begins with the London side of town, west of High Street, and I gather he will eventually treat the Yorkshire side as well. Dr. Biddle’s research is truly impressive, and I expect these articles will be the last word on the subject, so be sure to look out for future installments.
Fifty years ago, on September 15, 1961, the “reconstructed” covered bridge was dedicated. An alert reporter at the Star Ledger, Mike Frassinelli, reminded me of this fact, and that inspired me to reprint an article I wrote for “The Bridge,” the newsletter for Delaware Township, back in 2001, and also in the Hunterdon Historical Newsletter, Fall 2003 issue.
Passenger Pigeons Once Were Slaughtered By Millions
The Species Is Now Extinct
by Egbert T. Bush, Stockton, NJ
as published in the Hunterdon County Democrat, April 17, 1930
For the stories of the wildwood
Of the mountain and the plain
(Any stories heard in childhood)
Are the stories that remain.Yes, the stories that were told us seventy years ago still come up in quiet hours to rouse the drowsy mind and stir the sluggish blood. Some scattering ones that do not seem to fit well in any particular place may recall fond memories in older people; and may be of more or less interest now and then to one of the younger generation, not for themselves but as inklings of the older times. Present conditions are not calculated to make them as vivid as when memory recorded them so long ago; yet perhaps enough may be depicted, even by a limping pen, to give a fair idea of things then made so clear, often quite thrilling and always interesting.