On Sept. 3, 2024, Perkasie Borough Council unanimously approved a contract to return the historic South Perkasie Covered Bridge to public pedestrian service in Perkasie’s Lenape Park.
The project has drawn a lot of attention due to the covered bridge’s history. Today, the South Perkasie Covered Bridge is the oldest covered bridge in Bucks County, the third oldest in Pennsylvania, and the seventh oldest covered bridge in the United States, out of 800 remaining in service.
The South Perkasie Covered Bridge on the move, 1958
The borough named Wood Research & Development of Jefferson, Oregon, and Jacksonville, Florida as the engineer to plan bridge’s rehabilitation after the remnants of Hurricane Ida damaged the wooden structure and its abutments in September 2021.
The engineering contract award is $195,030. Early next year, separate construction contracts will be let for the timber structure and abutments. The current total project estimate is about $647,000, all of which is covered by FEMA and state grants, and local contributions from non-profits. The bridge is expected to be re-opened in the late summer of 2025.
A One of a Kind Covered Bridge
What sets the South Perkasie Covered Bridge apart from its other wooden cousins is its authenticity. Bucks County built the South Perkasie Covered Bridge in 1832, and it was in road service until 1958. However, the Bucks County Commissioners ordered the bridge’s demolition that year after they received complaints about traffic from a local business.
The Covered Bridge on moving day
The news of the South Perkasie Covered Bridge’s possible demise did not sit well with Perkasie residents and it soon became a regional news story. The Allentown Morning Call praised Perkasie residents who were organizing efforts to relocate the bridge from South Main Street to Lenape Park. The Philadelphia Inquirer said “more power” to the Perkasie Historical Society, which led the fight to save the covered bridge.
In August 1958, the covered bridge was relocated about a half mile south into the borough’s park as a pedestrian bridge. The move took eight days and made national headlines when the bridge became stuck on a street for two days, since many regional newspapers and three television stations covered the story. The county then donated the covered bridge to Perkasie Borough.
The bridge is a rare example of an original Town Lattice truss.
Since then, the South Perkasie Covered Bridge has not been changed from its design as a Town Lattice truss covered bridge. Architect Ithiel Town patented his unique bridge design in 1821, which led to an explosive growth in bridge building, including the use of the Town Lattice truss for early railroad bridges.
The South Perkasie Covered Bridge’s design matches Town’s original patent. Sometime before 1919 county records show it received a second deck, and there were repairs in 1940 and 1958. But the covered bridge, for all purposes, is a unique record of the landmark invention that was saved in act of historic preservation by Perkasie’s residents.
Funding a Local Historical Preservation Project
The other factor with the South Perkasie Covered Bridge is that a small town owns the covered bridge, and not Bucks County or the state. How a borough was able to fight for the funds to save its own covered bridge is a long story.
Fundraising event at Free Will Brewing, Feb. 2020
Plans were underway to repair part of the covered bridge before Hurricane Ida. In late 2019 and early 2020, the Perkasie Historical Society and other groups partnered with Perkasie Borough to raise money to repair the bridge, which was leaning on its southeast corner.
The Society raised $120,000 in three months. Perkasie Borough won a $100,000 grant from the state using the local funds as a match.
Just days before Perkasie was set to schedule bids on the repair contract, Hurricane Ida’s remnants moved the bridge 15 feet off its abutments. Only an electrical line conduit saved the bridge from floating away. Much of the abutment structure was severely damaged.
The bridge on Sept. 3, 2021
Perkasie Borough had weekly discussions with FEMA for 15 months about grant eligibility to repair flood-related damage to the bridge. Because the bridge was not insurable due to its lack of replacement value, FEMA guaranteed flood-related repairs since the bridge is on the National Register of Historic Places. FEMA also has many rules to ensure applicants are not trying to get money unrelated to disaster-related damages, so the talks were extensive and required documents to guarantee coverage. The borough’s state grant application had photos and other evidence. Without those photos, the grant award would have been much less.
The bridge was placed on a temporary support system after Ida.
The minimum FEMA award is significant, at $427,555, because FEMA bases its grant funding on materials and labor estimates. If the price of timber is higher in May 2025, the likely start construction date, FEMA will cover the difference. FEMA also has to pay for hidden damages, and any errors or omissions on its part.
The Costs of Local Preservation
The Bog Turtle
A breakdown of expenses shows why public projects, whether they are undertaken by the state, county, or local government, are not cheap. Because the covered bridge sits in a FEMA flood plain and flood way, environmental permits are needed, including an $8,000 check for bog turtles. Additional studies are needed if repairs include any change in the abutments’ footprints. While delays are typical for some projects with FEMA funding, the period allowed Perkasie Borough to fully understand FEMA’s rules and to find the best engineering partner with related experience. Perkasie had seven qualified firms bid on the engineering contract.
WRD’s Bayswater Covered Bridge project in Canada
Wood Research & Development (WRD) has 42 patents related to inspecting, testing and repairing of timber bridges. WRD also strives to do carbon-negative projects, so people may not see power tools during construction next year. The engineering plan, however, is critical to keeping the bridge authentic and the project on budget.
And to be sure, projects like this only happen with local grassroots support. A petition with nearly 2,000 signatures and comments was sent to the state for the 2020 grant request.
I was at the Perkasie Tree Lighting ceremony in December 2019, and our fundraising table had a covered bridge bank where people could make donations. Next to us was a table with holiday treats. A little girl was with her parents, and they gave her some money and said she had a choice of where to spend it. The girl didn’t hesitate to place the money in the covered bridge bank.
At that point, it became clear that the covered bridge would be saved. The path taken since December 2019 was impossible to predict. But for a bridge that has survived for 192 years, South Perkasie Covered Bridge has probably seen bigger challenges that a flood or funding.
Scott Bomboy is the chair of Perkasie Borough Council’s Historical Committee and has been involved with the South Perkasie Covered Bridge project since 2016.
