Necessary Destruction

Necessary Destruction. Burning the Wrightsville Bridge. , Thick smoke blackened the sky here on Sunday, June 28, 1863. The world's longest covered bridge was burning to prevent Confederates from crossing the Susquehanna River into Lancaster County during the Gettysburg Campaign. In six hours, flames consumed the majestic span. Only the 20 piers you see before you in the river remained., Gen. John B. Gordon led the Confederates. His 1,800 Georgia infantrymen, accompanied by cavalry and a four-gun battery of Virginia artillery, had arrived here at Wrightsville after occupying York. A motley force of 1,500 emergency militia and home guard, including more than 50 free Black men who worked in a Columbia rolling mill opposed Gordon., They delayed his advance, then retreated across the bridge. Attempts to destroy a section of the span with charges of gunpowder failed, and civilians then set fire to the bridge. The next morning, Gordon reluctantly withdrew to York., Smoke on the Water ,

"A vast sheet of flame, at one time half a mile in length, crept slowly from Wrightsville to Columbia, illuminating the waters of the Susquehanna for miles each way, and lighting everything up as clear as gaslight illuminates a room. The crackling noise produced by the burning bridge, and the shouts and confusion of the people, all made up such a scene such as is seldom witnessed." , , New York Herald, June 30, 1863

, Engineering Marvel , The sturdy toll bridge, more than a mile-and-a-quarter long, was the second at this site and was built in the 1830s. Settlers headed west on this crossing while Black freedom seekers went east on the span following the Underground Railroad into Lancaster County. The bridge would not be rebuilt until after the war. A severe windstorm wrecked the replacement crossing in 1896.