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| McCalls Ferry Covered Bridge 38-36-132X Theodore Burrs Greatest Achievement |
| "I can inform you now, with a considerable degree of satisfaction, that I have at length succeeded in getting up the long arch at McCalls Ferry. This arch is, without doubt, the greatest in the world." Theodore Burr Febuary 26 1815 |
And now I too can say, with a considerable degree
of satisfaction, that I have at length succeeded in
getting my portrait to same point of completion. I'll
continue to update this page as progress is made.
of satisfaction, that I have at length succeeded in
getting my portrait to same point of completion. I'll
continue to update this page as progress is made.
| April 2, 1811, the Pennsylvania legislature approved an act to that appropriated money to companies thereafter to be formed, to build five bridges across the Susquehanna River at Berwick, Northumberland, Harrisburg, Columbia, and McCalls Ferry. All four were ferry crossings on major routes at the time, though one would hardly know it from the seemingly remote location that McCalls Ferry is today. Theodore Burr bid on all five projects and secured contracts on all but the Columbia Wrightsville crossing. |
| Theodore Burr was born in Torrington CT, August 16, 1772. No relation to Aaron Burr, he was the son of John Burr & Jael Markam. John Burr served as a lieutenant in the revolution. After the war he became a millwright and went on to build many dams and water powered mills. Theodore followed his father into the millwright and building trades, and in 1793 he moved to Oxford NY. Over the next two years, he & a partner built the Fort Hill Mills and a dam across the Chenango River. Fort Hill Mills consisted of a grist mill, a planing mill, and a sawmill. Following this, in true Burr fashion, he began to contract the building mills & dams through out the area. As all good millers of the day knew, a successful mill must have a good crossing, so in 1800, he built one. And once again, in true Burr fashion, he began building bridges as a professional endeavor. In 1804, Burr built a toll bridge across the Hudson River at Waterford. This bridge consisted of multiple king post trusses sandwiched between two great arches that started below the road deck on each end and rose to even with the top cords in the center of the span. This gave a very rigid structure and minimized the rise in the road deck. The Burr Arch was born. |
| The Susquehanna is normaly a shallow river, over a mile wide in many places. But at McCalls Ferry, mountains on either side of the river and a shallow shelf on the York county side pinch it so that the whole of the river flowed through a channel 609 feet in width in high water and 348 feet at common low water. Burr had soundings done, and found the water in the channel to be 150 feet deep at common low water. Obviously no piers could be placed in such deep water, so Burrs plan was to place a single pier on the eastern most edge of the York county shelf and cross it with two spans, one of 360 feet clear span and a second of 240 feet clear span. Since no falseworks could be placed in such deep water, Burr planned to build the framework on floats paralel to the Lancaster County shore, and when complete, float it into place. |
| In the summer months of 1814, Burr contracted masons to build the pier & abutments as he sawed the timbers at his mill in Oxford. The timbers were then tied into rafts and floated down the Susquehanna to the bridge site. October 1, 1814 Burr began the construction of the long arch , and on December 7, was ready to move it up to the abutment. Unfortunately, ice began to run the same day. By the next morning, ice was starting to block the channel, and continued to amass, until there was no hope of clear water without flood that would surely destroy the bridge. Burr decided to take the structure off the floats, on to the ice, and skid it into place. Atempts to move the entire structure were lessons in futility, Burr finaly separated the arch into halfs, laid plank roads over the ice, placed rollers under the framework, and with 8 capstans, two men on each handle, tied to four folded block & tackles, they were able to move the halfs into position and key them together on Febuary 1, 1815. The next morning the ice had fallen some and the arch stood on its own. The whole of that day was spent cutting away the scaffolding. At nightfall they stopped for an hour of refreshment, built bonfires and got back to work. By 8 oclock, the remaining scaffold was removed, and in Burrs own words "It was a joyful moment to my brave fellows; and you may well suppose they gave way to impulse, in loud and repeated hurras. The next day was set apart as a day of rejoicing". (or day of hangover) |
| Burr completed the bridge enough to permit travel in December 1815, completed it by November 1817, and formally opened it November 18, 1817. At the dedication he proudly declared, "Here stands a bridge God almighty himself could not move!". March 3, 1818, the same river ice that helped Burr place the bridge there, returned and took it away. No replacement was built until the Norman Wood bridge opened in 1968. The site of the old bridge is now submerged in Lake Aldred about a mile north of the Holtwood dam. |
| The bridge was a two lane, 32 feet wide. The long span was a 32 panel, 367 feet total length, and was a double arch with 7 ft kingposts separating the arches, further strengthened with truss braces & counteracting braces. There were 6 of these structures and they sandwiched three kigpost structures, the center being somewhat taller than the outer two. Both spans were arched slightly overall to allow for shrinkage & settling. The western span was a 22 panel, 247 feet total length, and in my opinion was most likely a triple arch span much like the Camelback in Harrisburg. The butts of the arches were 32 feet above common low water, and the roadway 52 feet above. |
| To my knowledge, no pictures, sketches, blueprints, or drawings made at the time of this bridge exist today. I've created this portrait from a letter Theodore Burr wrote to Ruben Field, a fellow bridge builder from NY, in which he describes the site and the bridge in fair detail, including dimensions & layout of the long arch & trusses, and from pictures & descriptions of the Camelback Bridge in Harrisburg, which Mr. Burr built at the same time and had three spans of similar length as the short arch. This was the longest wooden span ever built, and has not been surpassed to this day. It's been said that Mr. Burr intended this bridge to demonstrate the versatility of his design, and it certainly does that. Having eaned his degrees at the School Of Hard Knocks, the man was a practical mechanical genius. This bridge is his crowning achievment, and this portrait is my tribute to him. Click Here to read Mr Burrs entire letter |
| Click here to read Burrs entire letter to Ruben field describing building and setting the main arch, and the hardships endured. |
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