{"nrhp_refnum":"73001600","name":"Hall's Bridge","other_names":["Sheeder-Hall Bridge"],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"About 3 mi. N of Chester Springs at Sheeder Rd. and Birch Run, East/West Vincent Townships","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chester Springs","county":"Chester County","state":"PA","lat":40.14766566000003,"lon":-75.62045610999996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-04-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Engineering"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A covered bridge spanning French Creek at Henry Hall's Farm in Chester Springs, Chester County, Pennsylvania, built ca. 1850 in the Burr-truss style. The form describes it as 116 feet long with a roadway thirteen-and-one-half feet wide.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the bridge is significant as a representative example of the Burr-truss bridge type, a major advance in American bridge design, and as the oldest covered bridge in Chester County. It notes that few of the county's covered bridges survive and that the bridge has survived fire and demolition threats. Its span is described as one of the longest of its date.","narrative":"Built ca. 1850 at a cost of $1,564, this covered bridge crosses French Creek at Henry Hall's Farm on the road between Red Hill Cannery and Birchinville, in Chester County, Pennsylvania. It is a pegged wood structure of the Burr-truss type, in which a timber arch bolted to a kingpost truss on each side carries the level roadway. The bridge spans 116 feet and has a roadway thirteen-and-one-half feet wide. Its sides are sheathed in horizontal boards with ventilation openings, and its entrances are topped by wooden pediments. The Burr-truss form, invented by Theodore Burr in 1806 and patented in 1817, was the only type built in the county from 1812 to 1885. Hall's Bridge is described as the oldest covered bridge in the county, and one of sixteen surviving out of more than one hundred built. A 1962 arson attempt and a proposed demolition were followed by a 1965 reinforcement with steel and concrete that kept its original appearance.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1850","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Burr-truss","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Reinforced in 1965 with steel stringers, a new wood deck and a concrete pier at midspan after narrowly escaping demolition.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:30.245261-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/73001600.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001600/cf9ef484a6-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001600/cf9ef484a6-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sheeder_Hall_Chesco.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sheeder_Hall_Chesco.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71992629","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall%27s_Bridge","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5642528"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/chester-county/halls-bridge-73001600/"}