Pengra Covered Bridge

Pengra Covered Bridge - Oregon

Also known as the Fall Creek Covered Bridge, the Pengra Covered Bridge is a 268 foot long covered Howe through truss designed covered bridge spanning over the Fall Creek in Lane County, Oregon, southeast of Eugene and Springfield. Built in 1938, the bridge was built by A.C. Striker, who was the Lane County bridge superintendent at the time. The Pengra Covered Bridge contains two of the longest timbers ever cut for a bridge in Oregon, covered or not. The timbers for the lower chords, 16 inch by 18 inch by 126 feet long. Since 18 inch timbers were too large to be run through a sawmill, they were rough hewn in the woods, transported to the bridge site by truck and resurfaced before being set into place. The dimensions of the upper chord are of similar proportions at 14 inch by 18 inch by 96 feet long. While the use of one piece chords simplified construction techniques in building the bridge and resulted in a stronger truss, the handling such large timbers often proved to be difficult. Another distinctive feature of the bridge is a small roofed window on the southwest facing side, allowing drivers to see oncoming traffic as it approaches the bridge.

The Pengra Covered Bridge replaced a 192 foot span that was built in 1904 and was only a few feet upstream from the current bridge. The effect of weather and increased traffic caused Lane County to close the bridge in 1979. While Lane County officials had planned to reopen the structure, getting a contract ready for work for bridge restoration was delayed for several years. The bridge was repaired and reopened to traffic by Lane County in 1995 with the help of a grant from the Oregon Covered Bridge Program.

Regarding the name, Pengra was a station on the Cascade Line of the Southern Pacific Railroad and was named for B.J. Pengra, a pioneer in the history of early Oregon who later became general surveyor of Oregon in 1862. Pengra had surveyed the route of the Oregon Central Military Road to link the Willamette Valley with the Owyhee mining country of Eastern Oregon. The road was finished to the summit of the Cascades in 1867, but was seldom used, perhaps due to other roads that were built at the time (the Santiam Wagon Road along what is modern day US 20 comes to mind). The Pengra Unity Road lies on the old railroad grade of the old Cascade Line and has been renamed Place Road, but the bridge retains the name.

How to Get There:

Sources and Links:
Eugene Cascades and Coast - Pengra Covered Bridge
Oregon.com - Fall Creek (Pengra) Covered Bridge
Bridgehunter.org - Pengra Covered Bridge 37-20-15
Covered-Bridges.org - The Pengra (Fall Creek) Bridge
Library of Congress - Pengra Bridge, Spanning Fall Creek, Place Road (CR 480), Jasper, Lane County, OR

Comments

Paper Highways: The Unbuilt New Orleans Bypass (Proposed I-410)

There are many examples around the United States of proposed freeway corridors in urban areas that never saw the light of day for one reason or another. They all fall somewhere in between the little-known and the infamous and from the mundane to the spectacular. One of the more obscure and interesting examples of such a project is the short-lived idea to construct a southern beltway for the New Orleans metropolitan area in the 1960s and 70s. Greater New Orleans and its surrounding area grew rapidly in the years after World War II, as suburban sprawl encroached on the historically rural downriver parishes around the city. In response to the development of the region’s Westbank and the emergence of communities in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parishes as viable suburban communities during this period, regional planners began to consider concepts for new infrastructure projects to serve this growing population. The idea for a circular freeway around the southern perimeter of t

Hernando de Soto Bridge (Memphis, TN)

The newest of the bridges that span the lower Mississippi River at Memphis, the Hernando de Soto Bridge was completed in 1973 and carries Interstate 40 between downtown Memphis and West Memphis, AR. The bridge’s signature M-shaped superstructure makes it an instantly recognizable landmark in the city and one of the most visually unique bridges on the Mississippi River. As early as 1953, Memphis city planners recommended the construction of a second highway bridge across the Mississippi River to connect the city with West Memphis, AR. The Memphis & Arkansas Bridge had been completed only four years earlier a couple miles downriver from downtown, however it was expected that long-term growth in the metro area would warrant the construction of an additional bridge, the fourth crossing of the Mississippi River to be built at Memphis, in the not-too-distant future. Unlike the previous three Mississippi River bridges to be built the city, the location chosen for this bridge was about two

Huey P. Long Bridge (New Orleans, LA)

Located on the lower Mississippi River a few miles west of New Orleans, the Huey P. Long Bridge is an enormous steel truss bridge that carries both road and rail traffic on an old-time structure that is a fascinating example of a bridge that has evolved in recent years to meet the traffic and safety demands of modern times. While officially located in suburban Jefferson Parish near the unincorporated community of Bridge City, this bridge’s location is most often associated with New Orleans, given that it’s the largest and most recognizable incorporated population center in the nearby vicinity. For this reason, this blog article considers the bridge’s location to be in New Orleans, even though this isn’t 100% geographically correct. Completed in 1935 as the first bridge across the Mississippi River in Louisiana and the first to be built in the New Orleans area, this bridge is one of two bridges on the Mississippi named for Huey P. Long, a Louisiana politician who served as the 40th Gove

Gribblenation

Search This Blog