Knecht's Covered Bridge Burned

[38-09-02]
by Ben and June Evans

 

September 1, 2004 - Last evening, about 8:15, we received a phone call from one of our local bridging friends who told us he had just received a call telling him that "some kids had set fire to Knecht''s Covered Bridge." Knecht's Bridge is just outside of the village of Pleasant Valley in Bucks County, PA. Since we live just over the county line in Lehigh, we drove over to the bridge immediately to see how extensive the damage was. Fortunately, we saw the bridge standing completely intact, but since it was quite dark, we could not see the extent of the damage.

We returned this morning and were able to see that one of the secondary bottom chords had been burned completely through, another chord had been burned about one-third, and the two adjacent diagonals of the Town truss have been partially charred. Obviously, the bridge has been closed.

A local maintenance person told us that he thinks the fire had been started sometime yesterday morning. There are smoke detectors in the bridge and may have been the reason it was discovered quickly. We have no further details, but will report on the incident more fully in the fall issue of Pennsylvania Crossings.