Hillsgrove Covered Bridge

Hillsgrove Covered Bridge
Hillsgrove Covered Bridge over Loyalsock Creek after restoration in 2012 (top), with flood damage in 2011 (middle), and before restoration in 2008 (bottom)
Coordinates	41°27′39″N 76°40′15″W / 41.46083°N 76.67083°W / 41.46083; -76.67083[1]
Carries	TR 357
Crosses	Loyalsock Creek
Locale	Sullivan, Pennsylvania, United States
Official name	Hillsgrove Covered Bridge
Other name(s)	Rinkers Covered Bridge
Named for	Hillsgrove Township
Maintained by	Sullivan County
NBI Number	567207035700040[2]
Characteristics
Design	National Register of Historic Places
Total length	186 ft (57 m)[2]
Width	18.0 ft (5.5 m)[3]
Height	8.0 ft (2.4 m)
Load limit	3 tons (2.7 t)
History
Constructed by	Sadler Rodgers
Built	c. 1850
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
MPS	Covered Bridges of Bradford, Sullivan and Lycoming Counties TR
NRHP reference No.	73001666
Added to NRHP	July 2, 1973
Location

The Hillsgrove Covered Bridge is a Burr arch truss covered bridge over Loyalsock Creek in Hillsgrove Township, Sullivan County, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It was built c. 1850 and is 186 feet (56.7 m) long. In 1973, it became the first covered bridge in the county to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The bridge is named for the township and nearby unincorporated village of Hillsgrove, and is also known as Rinkers Covered Bridge for an adjoining farm.

Pennsylvania had the first covered bridge in the United States, and has had the most such bridges since the 19th century. They were a transition between stone and metal bridges, with the roof and sides protecting the wooden structure from the weather. The Hillsgrove bridge has load-bearing Burr arches sandwiching multiple vertical king posts on each side, for strength and rigidity. It was built by Sadler Rodgers, who also constructed the nearby Forksville Covered Bridge in the same year, with a similar design.

The Hillsgrove bridge is the longest of three covered bridges remaining in Sullivan County, and served as a landing site for lumber rafts on the creek between 1870 and 1890. Nineteenth-century regulations restricting speed, number of animals, and fire are still posted on the bridge. Restoration work was carried out in 1963, 1968, 2010, and again in 2012 after serious flood damage. The bridge is still in use, with average daily traffic of 54 vehicles in 2012. Despite these restorations, it had a "structurally deficient" rating in the 2012 National Bridge Inventory, with a 16.5 percent structural sufficiency rating.^[2][a]