details

Documenting North America's past & present covered bridges

Home

Packsaddle or Doc Miller, Somerset County

If you find errors in the data please contact Bill Caswell.

If you would like to provide information on covered bridges that no longer exist from your state, or adopt a state to work on, we would certainly welcome your assistance. Please contact Trish Kane for more information.

Inventory Number: PA/38-56-02
County: Somerset County
Township: Fairhope
Town/Village: Fairhope
Bridge Name: Packsaddle or Doc Miller
Crosses: Brush Creek
Truss type: Multiple King
Spans: 1
Length: 48' overall
Roadway Width: 13'-9"
Built: 1870
Builder:
When Lost: standing
Cause:
Latitude: N39 52.052
Longitude: W078 49.032
See a map of the area
Topographic map of the area
Directions: 3.9 miles northwest of main intersection in Fairhope on Fairhope Rd. (SR2017), then 0.3 miles left on Pine Valley Rd. (TR407).

Packsaddle or Doc Miller Bridge, Fairhope, Somerset County, PA. Built 1870
Richard Donovan / Trish Kane Collection

Packsaddle or Doc Miller Bridge, Fairhope, PA. Built 1870
© Lisa Plamondon

Packsaddle or Doc Miller Bridge, Fairhope, Somerset County, PA. Built 1870
Bill Caswell Photo, February 27, 2010

Comments:
6-panel truss. Clearance was 11'-2" in the 1950s and is now 10'-6" according to the clearance sign. This is probably a "safe" clearance. According to a plaque, the bridge was rehabilitated in 1950, then heavily damaged by a flood on January 19, 1996. In 1998, it was again rehabilitated at a cost of $385,468.70. The contractor was Kee-ta Quay Construction and the engineer was The Neilan Engineers, Inc.

Sources:
Evans, Benjamin D. & June R.. Pennsylvania's Covered Bridges, 2001, page 251
Barkman, Sheldon H.. Covered Bridges of Somerset County, PA, 1979, Page 14
Travis, Dale. Pennsylvania Covered Bridges List, updated to 26 Aug 2004, http://www.dalejtravis.com/cblist/cbpa.htm (23 Sep 2004)
National Society For the Preservation of Covered Bridges. Covered Bridge Topics, Volume XLVIII, No. 2, Spring 1990, page 9
Moll, Fred J.. Pennsylvania's Covered Bridges - Our Heritage, 2004, pages 128-129
National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges. World Guide to Covered Bridges, 2021, page 128

The images in this collection may be protected under copyright law and may only be used for educational, teaching, and research purposes.
If the intended use is beyond these purposes, it is the responsibility of the user to obtain the appropriate permissions from the owner stated in the image's credits.