Camera Talk

Dennis Gallus wrote:Phil,

I meant to ask you last month, have you explored the covered bridges off of US-11 around Mount Jackson and Woodstock, VA? The Biedler bridge, ca. 1888 is in Rockingham County. The other is a bit further north around Mount Jackson. Both appear under "Shenandoah Valley" in this website:
http://www.virginia.org/coveredbridges/

Another Shenandoah Valley event I miss attending is the Battle of Cedar Creek re-enactment, which is also on US-11 near Middletown. This year, it is Oct 18-19.

Autumn in Virginia is usually very nice, I miss it a bit.

Best,
Dennis

I'll have to check them out, Dennis, thanks. Been meaning to get up to the Humpback bridge off Old US-60 west of Covington. It all depends on how much I can budget for gasoline in October. I did find a couple of nice ones along Rt-8 in Patrick County.

PF

That might be this one

Tom,

You've got it, that's the same bridge, the Meems Covered Bridge near Mt. Jackson. As the blurb below states, it was vandalized and then rebuilt in 1979, so it looks quite different than when you photographed it. Here's how it looked last November. It carries a lot of road traffic now.


Quote:
One of the best-known covered bridges is the 204-foot single-span Burr arch truss known as Meem's Bottom Covered Bridge in Mount Jackson. The Meem's Bottom Bridge was constructed in 1892-93 from materials cut and quarried nearby for the massive arch supports and stone abutments, which extended 10 feet below the riverbed. It was deeded to the Highway Department in the 1930's in return for assuming its maintenance.

This long span over the North Fork of the river carried traffic for more than 80 years before being burned by vandals on Halloween 1976. After salvaging the original timbers, the bridge was reconstructed and eventually undergirded with steel beams and concrete piers. The bridge was reopened to traffic in 1979 and is still in operation to date.

One of the many stops along the Wilderness Trail in Shenandoah County!
end of quote.

No, Dennis, Tom's photo is of the Humpback Bridge near Callahan which spans Dunlap Creek (west of Covington at Exit 10 on I-64). But both photos are very good.

PF