Hamden Covered Bridge

Hamden Covered Bridge. . , For nearly one hundred fifty years, the Hamden Covered Bridge has stood as a testament tot the ingenuity and resilience of both Delaware Country structures and the engineers who built them. The story of the Hamden Covered Bridge’s original construction and subsequent restoration is a fascinating one that should be heard by all residents of our great county., The Hamden Covered Bridge’s genesis came from the mind of a man named Robert Murray, a Scotsman born in the town of Eskdalmuir in 1814, settled in Bovina, New York, in 1818. Years passed and finally , in the year 1859, Mr. Robert Murray began construction of a covered bridge far from his native Andes. The contract for completion of the bridge was signed on April 17, 1859, between Murray and the Town of Hamden. The original bridge cost was $1,000. While the bridge was being constructed, Murray would walk out to the project site in Hamden from Andes, often ‘boarding out’ the week and returning home on Saturday., The bridge was a design known as the ‘Long Truss’. Patented by a man named Colonel Stephen H. Long of Hopkinton, New Hampshire. When originally constructed, the bridge was a single-span structure approximately 128 feet long. Travelers who moved via horse were especially grateful for the barn-like design of the bridge, for many horses were known to be extremely afraid to cross bodies of water over open bridges; the familiar barn-like setting of the crossing doubtlessly prevented many accidents., Almost a hundred years passed with no major alterations to the bridge’s structure; in the 1940’s, the bridge underwent an overhaul in which a center pier was installed for greater roof support, making the bridge a double span. A lean to one side of the Hamden bridge was repaired by Delaware County in 1966 with the use of two large supporting buttresses on either side of the bridge. !966 was also the year that the bridge received its ionic coat of red paint., By the year 2000, though, the covered bridge in Hamden had fallen upon rough times. Although various efforts had been made to restore the bridge to its original 1859 condition from the 1940’s through the 80’s, structural wear and tear had become painfully obvious. W.L. Kline, a construction contractor, received the winning bid to lead the project to restore the Hamden Covered Bridge. On July 19, 2000, the project began as the entire bridge was lifted off its abutments. Although the top chord supporting the bridge snapped and one-third of the entire structure sank into the river, the damage was not great and the project was soon back on schedule., The tin roof that had been originally installed by Robert Murray one hundred and forty-one years before was replaced with a stronger steel roof, decayed bottom chords were replaced, and the center pier installed in the 1940s which had made the Hamden Covered Bridge a double-span structure was removed. Other slapdash additions to the bridge made during the 20th century were removed, and the Hamden Covered Bridge was completed to its original glory on November 13, 2000.