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.
