Carrolton Covered Bridge
SR 36, Carrollton, WVNineteenth-century maps show an "M. F. Pike", which crosses the Buchannon River at the present location of the Carrollton bridge. The "M. F. Pike" is probably the "Middle Fork Road", which is mentioned in the 1855 and 1857 Annual Reports of the Virginia Board of Public Works. Included in these reports is a reference to a contract for a "Buchannon bridge", which was constructed on the Middle Fork Road and spanned the Buchannon River. The bridge's length was the same span (approximately 142 feet) as the present-day Carrollton bridge.
Emmett J. and Daniel O'Brien were the contractors for the Buchannon bridge. A native of Beverly, West Virginia, Emmett had been the masonry contractor for the more famous Philippi bridge. The O'Brien brothers raised the superstructure prior to November 25, 1855, and construction was completed in the fall of 1856.
The original cost of the bridge was $2,928.11 for the 839 perches making up the abutments and $1,691.15 for the superstructure, which was built for $11.875 per linear foot. However, after the contract was awarded, the unforeseen instability of the river banks made it necessary to increase the width of the superstructure by two feet and the length of the wing walls by twenty feet. As a result of these modifications, $200.00 was added to the cost of the superstructure. The total cost of the bridge was $4,819.26.
The Carrollton Covered Bridge is one of the two remaining covered bridges in Barbour County. It is the second-longest covered bridge in West Virginia and it is one of three bridges in the state, which display the patented Burr Arch System Constructed approximately two years following the completion of the Philippi bridge, it stands as the 3rd oldest covered bridge in West Virginia.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1981.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.