Fred J. Moll, historian of the Theodore Burr Covered Bridge Society of Pennsylvania, is a member of the Historical Society of Berks County and the National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges. He is the author of five books on bridges and several articles for the Historical Review of Berks County, Covered Crossings, Wooden Covered Spans, and Covered Bridge Topics. Photographs in the book are from the author's personal collection, the Theodore Burr Covered Bridge Society of Pennsylvania, several historical societies, and private collections.
Fred Moll was a young man from Reading when he first came to
Lancaster County for a road rally in the 1960s.
The nighttime event took a course through three covered bridges, he
said, and although he couldn't see them very well in the darkness,
it sounded so cool to go through them, I wanted to see them during
the day.
So Moll soon headed back to Lancaster to get a gander at those
bridges -- and that started a lifelong interest in their history
and construction.
Now, a half-century later, Arcadia Publishing is releasing Moll's
latest book, Pennsylvania's Covered Bridges, which celebrates the
stylish feats of engineering with more than 200 vintage images.
The majority of the bridges that are in the book are no longer
standing, Moll said.
The book, which is scheduled for release Monday, is part of
Arcadia's Images of America series. It is dominated by
black-and-white photos, although Moll also has provided text
detailing the history of many of the bridges.
I wanted to learn more about the people that built them and how
they were built, he said.
They measured these pieces of wood with rather crude instruments.
They didn't have digital equipment; they didn't have electric saws
or cranes. Everything was done by hand. That's fascinating to
me.
The first covered bridge was built in Pennsylvania in 1805. In
their heyday, more than 1,500 of them crossed streams and rivers in
the state.
Although just over 200 remain today, Pennsylvania still has the
nation's highest number of covered spans.
But Moll said he's worried that the remaining number will
dwindle.
It really hadn't hit me until we hit this recession, he said. They
remained fairly constant for the last 50 years. But now, funding
for taking care of the bridges has been cut. It worries me what the
future holds in store.
In Berks County and throughout much of the state, they're not being
taken care of very well any more, Moll said.
In Lancaster, the people in power realize what an attraction they
are, and they keep their bridges in pretty good shape. But
throughout the rest of the state, I worry that we're going to lose
more bridges.
Moll is the historian for the Theodore Burr Covered Bridge Society
and is a member of the Historical Society of Berks County and the
National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges. He has
written five books on bridges, and many of the photos included in
this latest volume are from his private collection.
There are a lot of different types of bridges around. Iron,
concrete, what have you, he said. Covered bridges have always
sparked people's interest because you can be surrounded by them.
It's like entering a historic building, a whole structure.
You're engulfed in the bridge itself.
Lancaster New Era, Tom Knapp
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