Covered Bridges of Delaware State

Delaware state never had many covered bridges, and its few were located in the northern part of the state, in New Castle County, near the Pennsylvania line. The reason is simple: most of Delaware is tidal plain, and covered bridges have never been much use in the tidal plains with their flat land and wide, slow rivers. Ferries are better in that kind of country.

But Delaware has used, and does use, covered bridges to cross some of its northern creeks, especially the Red Clay and the Brandywine. Is the Brandywine a river or a creek? It may depend on your mood -- or on the mood of the stream itself, for it can be an unpredictable one, given to flooding. In flood it certainly seems a river. And for that reason, the Brandywine bridges have been set high above the creek. Here is a picture of one, from an early picture post-card.

The Bridge at Rising Sun

Rising Sun seems to have been near the Du Pont powder works, now the Hagley Museum. The bridge was, of course, removed long ago. Indeed there are no longer any covered bridges on the Brandywine in Delaware -- and only one in Chester County. Smith's Bridge, just south of the Pennsylvania-Delaware line, was once described as Delaware's finest, but it was burnt (I am told) in the 1970's by the local volunteer firemen, for practice. What a tale! I hope it is not true. Here is Smith's Bridge as it looked, probably, in the 1940's. This picture is from a postcard published by Jo Newcomer of Wilmington and dated 1951. Such dates are unusual on postcards, and the style of the image, which seems originally to have been a hand-tinted photograph, suggests that the image may be much earlier.

Smith's Bridge Before Mid-Century

In the fifties, Smith's Bridge got a new paint job and in the late fifties, it looked like this, in another Wilmington-published postcard:

Smith's Bridge After Mid-Century

At one time there were several small covered bridges on Red Clay Creek, For years I have been saying that there was only one left: Ashland Bridge. I was wrong. According to "Covered Bridges of the Mid-Atlantic States," four covered bridges survived in Delaware in 1959, though one, south of Ashland, was then in ruins. In 1991, I thought I had found the sites of the four, but I looked in the wrong place for the Wooddale bridge. Thanks to Tom Gears for correcting me.

Here is a picture of the Ashland Bridge, crossing Red Clay Creek at the Ashland Nature Center.

Ashland Bridge

Here is Wooddale Bridge.

Wooddale Bridge

Both are rather small Town Truss bridges. Here is a picture of the town truss in Wooddale Bridge, and it testifies to the excellent state of repair of Wooddale Bridge:

A View of the Town Truss

Well, that's all, folks. Delaware's a small wonder, but more a state for crab pots than for covered bridges.