{"nrhp_refnum":"79003181","name":"Josiah Hess Covered Bridge No. 122","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"SR 563","address_restricted":false,"city":"Forks","county":"Columbia County","state":"PA","lat":41.11494064800007,"lon":-76.33936819999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-11-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Engineering","Transportation"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A covered bridge in Forks, Columbia County, Pennsylvania, named the Josiah Hess Covered Bridge. It is 105.2 feet long with a roadway 15.4 feet wide and 11 feet of clearance, and it is built as a Burr truss arch.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the bridge is significant for its engineering, citing the Burr truss design and the county's covered bridges as unique in their design and engineering. It also links the bridge to transportation needs that grew with rapid town growth and with farming, saw and grist mills.","narrative":"The Josiah Hess Covered Bridge in Forks, Columbia County, Pennsylvania, is a timber bridge 105.2 feet long, with a roadway 15.4 feet wide and 11 feet of vertical clearance. It is built as a Burr truss arch, with five diagonal braces on either side of a central king post, and the arch is superimposed on each side of each truss system. The roof is corrugated metal covered with tar, and the walls are board and batten, though some repairs show plain vertical planks. One wall has two long windows because the road curves sharply in that direction. The abutments are mostly original stone and mortar. Joseph Redline is named as builder. The bridge is important for its engineering. Columbia County's covered bridges use several truss types, and the nomination treats their design as unique because none have been built in the county for half a century. The bridge also served the county's expanding towns and the farming, saw and grist mill activity that needed reliable crossings.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Joseph Redline (builder)","architectural_style":"Burr Truss Arch","criteria":[],"status_note":null,"vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:33.220904-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/79003181.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79003181/2fe8134c17-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79003181/2fe8134c17-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Ruhrfisch","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Josiah_Hess_Covered_Bridge_14.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Ruhrfisch</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:Josiah_Hess_Covered_Bridge_14.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71992814","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Hess_Covered_Bridge_No._122","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6290513"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/columbia-county/josiah-hess-covered-bridge-no-122-79003181/"}