Trip To DC

We left Denver, PA, this morning enroute to our home-away-from-home in Arlington, VA, taking the long route via Gettysburg and Maryland so we could see more of the countryside - and a few more covered bridges.

We had to be at Reagan National by 5 pm to pick up Addy and her parents,

so we didn't have a lot of time to tarry. A quick stop at Park Headquarters in Gettysburg to pick up a map, then we drove through the park on our way to the first covered bridge of the day -

Sachs Bridge, built in 1852, and our first example of a lattice/Town truss.

Very different from the Burr truss bridges we were used to seeing (a Burr truss has a curved side support).

Roddy Road Bridge, in Maryland, was built in 1856, and is our first kingpost truss.

See the vertical beam at the center of the triangle? That's the kingpost. It can't support a long expanse, so this type of bridge is usually very short.

More information and descriptions on different truss types can be found here.

Our last bridge of the day - Utica Mills Bridge, built in 1842 - was supposed to be a kingpost, but - surprise! - it's a Burr truss.

If I'd realized that ar the start, we'd probably have skipped this one since I had to pick and choose time-wise and tried to get truss types we hadn't seen already.

Pretty bridge, so I'm glad we got to see it.

The rains started just as we finished the bridge tour and accompanied us all the way to Arlington.

Then magically stopped about the same time Addy stepped off the plane. Hope the dry skies continue for our long weekend in DC!

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