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Documenting North America's past & present covered bridges

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Barrackville, Marion 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: WV/48-25-02
County: Marion County
Township: Fairmont
Town/Village:
Bridge Name: Barrackville
Crosses: Buffalo Creek
Truss type: Burr
Spans: 1
Length: 145'
Roadway Width:
Built: 1853
Builder: Lemuel & Eli Chenoweth
When Lost: standing
Cause:
Latitude: N39 30.361
Longitude: W080 10.074
See a map of the area
Topographic map of the area
Directions: 1.7 miles west of jct US19 on US250, then 1.0 miles right on Barrackville Rd. to parking area on right.

Barrackville Bridge, Fairmont, Marion County, WV Built 1853
Bill Caswell Photo, July 2007

Barrackville Bridge, Fairmont, Marion County, WV Built 1853
Bill Caswell Photo, June 2006

Barrackville Bridge, Fairmont, Marion County, WV Built 1853
Leo Litwin Photo, 1953, Richard E. Roy Collection

Barrackville Bridge, Fairmont, Marion County, WV Built 1853
Bill Caswell Photo, January 12, 2016

Comments:
Closed. At a November 1990 public meeting in Barrackville, Dr. Emory Kemp, of West Virginia University presented preliminary plans for restoring the turn-of-the-century look of the state’s remaining covered bridges, beginning with the Marion County span built by Lemuel and Eli Chenoweth in 1853 as part of the Fairmont-Wheeling Turnpike. In 1991 an Acrow panel-type bridge had to be installed inside the 20-foot-wide, 146-foot-long multiple-kingpost Burr arch truss because of its deteriorating condition, and a $1.3 million upstream replacement began carrying Marion County route 21 traffic over Buffalo Creek in 1992. Finally, in late 1997, Governor Cecil Underwood announced that design of a project for the bridge, which had suffered many delays, was back on track, with restoration to “get started before there is any more deterioration of this historic structure.” At the beginning of 1998, Orders Construction Company, Inc. of St. Albans was awarded a nearly $1.5 million contract to restore the Barrackville Covered Bridge by replacing rotted truss members with wood to match the original, installing a new wooden floor system and repairing the roof, all work aimed at returning the structure to its appearance in the original time period of its construction. Restoration also included siding, which had been added after the structure’s original time period, but did not include a previous sidewalk, since the bridge now serves pedestrians only. An autumn 1999 ribbon-cutting ceremony officially reopened the restored structure.

Sources:
Auvil, Myrtle. Covered Bridges of West Virginia Past & Present, 1973, pages 74-77 & 95
http://www.transportation.wv.gov/highways/bridge_facts/covered-bridges/Pages/BarrackvilleCoveredBridge.aspx
Travis, Dale. 'West Virginia Covered Bridges List', updated to 23 Feb 2005, http://www.dalejtravis.com/cblist/cbwv.htm (12 Mar 2005)
Wood, Miriam F. & Simmons, David A.. Covered Bridges: Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, 2007, pages 268-269, 278
National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges. World Guide to Covered Bridges, 2021, page 159

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