A 130-year-old covered bridge near Perkasie, one of 13 covered bridges left in Bucks County, burned down early yesterday, fire officials said.
They are still investigating the blaze, which had engulfed the bridge by the time the Perkasie Fire Company arrived about 3:30 a.m., company Lt. Ed Boshell said.
The only thing firefighters could do was "wet it down and watch it," Boshell said.
The fire was under control about 5:30 a.m.
"I don't think there's anything natural in the bridge that would have caused this fire," Bucks County Fire Marshal William D. York said.
Situated east of Perkasie in East Rockhill Township, Mood's Covered Bridge was built over the northeast branch of the Perkiomen Creek in 1874 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It carried traffic on Blooming Glen Road over the creek.
Images of the red-roofed, one-span bridge appeared in watercolor paintings and cross-stitch patterns.
It had been closed since January after a 12-foot-high Browning-Ferris Industries trash truck broke eight of 12 roof supports as it tried to cross the bridge, which had an 11-foot clearance.
About 2,000 vehicles crossed the bridge daily before the damage.
Repairs to the bridge, which was 15 wide and 120 feet long, had been scheduled to begin Monday, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation spokesman Charles Metzger said.
Now, the bridge will be closed indefinitely until the department decides what to do, Metzger said. Though steel support beams installed under the bridge in 1974 remain intact, the wooden housing was consumed, Metzger said.
PennDot spent $277,000 in 1997 to fully restore the structure.
"We are distressed that Pennsylvania has had another covered bridge be destroyed," said Susan Zacher of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Bureau for Historic Preservation.
Pennsylvania once had as many as 1,500 covered bridges; now there are between 210 and 220, Zacher said. Many were demolished in the 1950s to make way for development. But in the last 20 years or so, covered bridges' most common enemies have been heavy trucks, floods and arsonists.
Still, there are more covered bridges left in Pennsylvania than in any other state, said Tom Walczak, president of the Theodore Burr Covered Bridge Society of Pennsylvania, a group that works to preserve the structures.
The covered bridge was part of what drew Leslie Hogan to the area six years ago from Abington, Montgomery County. Her 5-year-old daughter, Emily, loved the bridge so much that she insisted on going the long way to preschool every morning, so that she could ride through the bridge.
"She's going to be devastated," Hogan said. "She was excited because it was going to be fixed. Now it's gone."
