{"nrhp_refnum":"78000445","name":"Old Covered Bridge","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"Covered Bridge Lane","address_restricted":false,"city":"Sheffield","county":"Berkshire County","state":"MA","lat":42.12408936400004,"lon":-73.35426644199998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-11-24","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Engineering"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A covered timber bridge spanning the Housatonic River in the Plains region of Sheffield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, built in 1837-38 using Ithiel Town's lattice truss design.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is the oldest extant covered bridge in Massachusetts and one of the earliest examples of a Town Lattice Truss bridge. Its truss includes the secondary chords that Ithiel Town added to his design in 1835. The state review also noted statewide significance in terms of engineering.","narrative":"Crossing the Housatonic River in the Plains section of Sheffield, this covered bridge is ninety-three feet long and about sixteen feet wide on the outside. It was built between 1837 and 1838, after town selectmen advertised for its construction in April 1837 and town meeting accepted it the following spring. Its structure is the Town lattice truss with secondary chords, a design patented by New Haven architect Ithiel Town in 1820 and modified in 1835 for greater stability. The timbers are mostly hemlock, held with oak trunnels, and the floor is oak and elm. A shallow gabled roof covers the span, and the sides are vertical board. The bridge is recognized as the oldest surviving covered bridge in Massachusetts and an early example of its truss type. It has been closed to vehicles since 1970, and flooding has badly undermined its granite piers. Listing was sought in part to help the town find funds to stabilize them.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Ithiel Town","architectural_style":"Town lattice truss covered bridge","criteria":[],"status_note":"Closed to vehicular traffic since 1970; condition listed as fair, unaltered and on its original site, with granite piers seriously undermined by periodic flooding.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.71417-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/62/7943/63794362/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/78000445.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000445/21f092a5ef-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000445/21f092a5ef-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rebuilt_Old_Covered_Bridge,_June_2012,_Sheffield_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rebuilt_Old_Covered_Bridge,_June_2012,_Sheffield_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794362","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Covered_Bridge","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7083787"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/berkshire-county/old-covered-bridge-78000445/"}