The Powerscourt Covered Bridge is a
covered bridge that takes the First Concession Road across the
Chateauguay River in
Hinchinbrooke, Quebec
Hinchinbrooke is a rural community in southern Quebec, in the Châteauguay Valley, in the MRC de Le Haut-Saint-Laurent. The population as of the Canada 2011 Census was 2,242.
History
Since the 1980 dissolution of Huntingdon County, Hinchinbro ...
. It is also known as the Percy Bridge.
It was constructed in 1861, and employs the McCallum inflexible arched truss, developed by
Daniel McCallum
Daniel Craig McCallum (January 21, 1815 – December 27, 1878) was a Scottish-born American railroad engineer, general manager of the New York and Erie Railroad and Union Brevet Major General of the United States Military Railroads during the Am ...
. It was the only McCallum truss bridge that was not a railway bridge, and since wooden truss railway bridges have all but been replaced with steel and concrete bridges, it is the last bridge of its kind in the world.
In 2009 it was fully restored to its original 1861 plans.
It is supported on three masonry
piers and the two
span
Span may refer to:
Science, technology and engineering
* Span (unit), the width of a human hand
* Span (engineering), a section between two intermediate supports
* Wingspan, the distance between the wingtips of a bird or aircraft
* Sorbitan es ...
s are structurally independent of each other.
The Powerscourt Covered Bridge was designated a
National Historic Site of Canada
National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment
An environment minister (sometimes minister of the environment or secretary of t ...
in 1984 because:
*it is the only known example of a McCallum inflexible arched truss bridge still in existence;
*it is one of the oldest covered bridges that exists in Canada.
The bridge was also named an Historic Monument of Quebec in 1987. It was documented by the U.S.
Historic American Engineering Record in 2003 with assistance from Public Works and Government Services Canada.
See also
*
List of bridges in Canada
*
List of covered bridges in Quebec
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Road bridges in Quebec
Covered bridges in Canada
National Historic Sites in Quebec
Bridges on the National Historic Sites of Canada register
Heritage buildings of Quebec
Bridges in Montérégie
Bridges completed in 1861
Le Haut-Saint-Laurent Regional County Municipality