Skip to main content

Sam Wagner Covered Bridge - Pennsylvania

  


Also known as the Gottlieb Brown Covered Bridge, the Sam Wagner Covered Bridge spans over the Chillisquaque Creek on the county line between Montour and Northumberland Counties on Bridge Road near Potts Grove, Pennsylvania. The 95 foot long covered bridge was built in 1881 by George W. Keefer at a cost of $1,939. George Keefer was the builder of a number of covered bridges in this region of Pennsylvania (the Keefer Station Covered Bridge near Sunbury, Pennsylvania is another covered bridge he built), so the powers that be knew that they would get a quality finished product. Constructed with a single-span multiple Kingpost with a Burr arch truss design, the bridge serves one lane of vehicular traffic with a weight limit of 3 tons. 

The Sam Wagner Covered Bridge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and was rehabilitated in 1985. As Northumberland and Montour Counties jointly own the covered bridge, they pledged $17,500 each for bridge repairs when restoration took place. The Robert Newton firm in Watsontown, Pennsylvania won the contract for bridge repairs at $29,400, which involved taking apart the bridge's joints and replacing some of the timber.

I enjoyed my visit to the Sam Wagner Covered Bridge. While it was a foggy morning, it added the serenity and quietness that the bridge has to offer. When I visited, it looked like someone decked out the bridge for the holidays, which was a nice touch. The covered bridge is also a stone's throw away from I-80, which makes it a nice little detour when passing through the area.








How to Get There:



Sources and Links:
Ontfin.com - Sam Wagner Covered Bridge, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Covered Bridges - Northumberland County
Valley Girl Views - The Sam Wagner (Gottlieb Brown) Covered Bridge
Bridgehunter.com - Gottlieb Brown Covered Bridge 38-47-01 / 38-49-11


Update Log:
January 23, 2022 - Crossposted to Quintessential Pennsylvania - https://quintessentialpa.blogspot.com/2022/01/sam-wagner-covered-bridge.html

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Did Caltrans just kill the G26 cutout US Route shields?

The US Route System was formally created by the American Association of State Highway Officials during November 1926.  Through the history of the system the only state to which has elected to maintain cutout US Route shields has been California.  The G26 series cutout US Route shields have become a favorite in the road enthusiast hobby and are generally considered to be much more visually pleasing than the standard Federal Highway Administration variant.  However, the G26 shield series appears to have been killed off on January 18, 2026, when Caltrans updated their Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.  This blog will examine the history of the US Route shield specifications in California and what is happening with the 2026 changes.  The blog cover photo is facing towards the terminus of California State Route 136 and at a G26-2 specification US Route 395 shield.  In the background Mount Whitney can be seen in the Sierra Nevada range.   ...

Hawaii Route 50

Hawaii Route 50 is the longest Sign Route on the island of Kauai at 32.6 miles.  The entirety of Hawaii Route 50 is overlaid atop Kaumualii Highway from Lihue west to the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands. Hawaii Route 50 is one of the original 1955-era State Highway designations on Kauai.  Much of the Kaumualii Highway corridor was constructed during the sugar plantation boom of the late Hawaiian Kingdom.  The first tee beam bridge in Hawaii would be constructed along the Kaumualii Highway in 1911 at the Hanapepe.  Much of this highway would be modernized to two-lane standards through the 1930s and 1940s. This page is part of the Gribblenation Hawaii Roads series.  A compellation of all Hawaii-related media from both Gribblenation and RoadwayWiz can be found by clicking  here .  Part 1; the history of Hawaii Route 50 and Kaumualii Highway Hawaii Route 50 is the longest highway on Kauai at 32.6 miles.  The highway begins at Rice Str...

Ghost Town Tuesday; Nichols, FL

A couple years ago I spent a lot of spare time exploring phosphate mining ghost towns in the Bone Valley of Polk County, Florida.  One ghost town in particular called Nichols on Polk County Route 676 west of Mulberry caught my eye due to a relative lack of documentation on ghosttowns.com. Nichols was created in 1905 during the early phosphate mining boom in the Bone Valley region.  For the time Nichols was unusual since it had company housing in the Nichols Mine site and private residences outside the gate.  Nichols is only about two miles west of Mulberry which probably made it a somewhat reasonable commute even by the wonky standards of the early 20th Century.  Most of the Bone Valley region was relatively remote which made commuting or homesteading impractical which is why there are so many ghost towns in the area.  The company housing section of Nichols was phased out and abandoned by 1950. The Nichols town site is largely abandoned and could "possibl...