Bartram’s Covered Bridge

Spanning the county line between Delaware and Chester Counties over Crum Creek near the intersection of Goshen and Boot Roads in Newtown Square, it is the last covered bridge remaining in Delaware County, a county which once had over 30 covered bridges. The bridge has unique slanted plank portals, the only bridge in Pennsylvania with this unusual design.  Built in 1860 by Ferdinand Wood, who designed the portals to be “Hi and Wide as a Load of Hay,” the bridge is 80 feet long by 13 feet wide. It is named for Mordecai Bartram, an adjacent landowner. The bridge design, pioneered by Theodore Burr, features the Burr Truss, commonly found in Pennsylvania covered bridges of the time. At one time, the words “LINCOLN, Save Union and Congress” were still visibly painted inside the bridge. The last traces of this old graffiti from 1860 are believed to have been lost during the last restoration of the bridge in 1995.  The bridge closed to traffic in 1941.