Covered Bridges of Indiana County

“Easy and safe passage over the waters of the United States are much wanted.”
                                    - Charles Wilson Peale, An Essay on Building Wooden Bridges, 1797

First Indiana County Covered Bridge Festival!

On September 27, 2008 Indiana County will be celebrating its first ever Covered Bridge Festival. Enjoy tours, food, music, artisans, crafts and more. This event promises fun for the whole family.

Indiana County is home to four covered bridges constructed in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The four bridges are Harmon, Trusal, Kintersburg and Thomas. The Thomas Covered Bridge is the only covered bridge in Indiana County that remains open to traffic. All four covered bridges are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. You may also be interested to know that the first covered bridge built in Indiana County was the Blairsville Covered Bridge.

Responsibility for management of the covered bridges was transferred to Indiana County Parks & Trails in May 2007. The Indiana County Commissioners have appointed a Covered Bridge Committee who will oversee the restoration, improvement and promotion of the bridges. Indiana County is committed to ensuring that the covered bridges are maintained for future generations to enjoy and appreciate. See our covered bridges map for more information on the location of each bridge or for a description of each bridge and a map to the bridges, please view and print our "Covered Bridges of Indiana County" brochure. (This is a two page, color Adobe Acrobat (pdf) document.)

Historical Background

Kintersburg Bridge (1877) was named for Isaac Kinter, a local shopkeeper. J.S. Fleming erected the bridge over Crooked Creek at a cost of $893. The Kintersburg Bridge is the only Howe truss bridge in Indiana County. The bridge is 68 feet in length.

Harmon Bridge and Trusal Bridge are sister bridges located on the south branch of Plum Creek just off Five Points Road. Both the Harmon and Trusal bridges are constructed with town lattice trusses.

Harmon Bridge (1910) is 45 feet in length and was named after Civil War veteran J.S. Harmon. This bridge was constructed in 1910 at a cost of $525.

The oldest of Indiana County’s covered bridges is the Trusal Bridge (1870) (also known as Dice’s Bridge). At 41 feet the Trusal Bridge is the shortest of Indiana County’s covered bridges. It was named after Robert Trusal a nearby property owner.

The Thomas Bridge (1879) was completely reconstructed in 1998 at a cost of slightly more than $1 million dollars. Amos Thomas built the original bridge at a cost of $545; it is the longest of the Indiana County covered bridges at a length of 75 feet.  The Thomas Bridge crosses over Crooked Creek near Yarnick’s Farm Market.

Driving Directions

Please see our Covered Bridges of Indiana County map for detail driving instructions on getting from bridge to bridge.

All four bridges are within easy driving distance of one another. A written driving tour is available from the following the Pittsburgh and Its Countryside website:

http://www.visitpittsburgh.com/static/index.cfm?contentID=604

The covered bridge tour begins on Philadelphia Street in Downtown Indiana and travels in order from the Kintersburg Bridge to Harmon Bridge , Trusal Bridge and Thomas Bridge. The total distance of the driving tour is about 36 miles round trip.