Rohrbach Covered Bridge No. 24
Why it's listed
Catawissa, in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, is home to the Rohrbach Covered Bridge, a 64.33-foot wooden span with a 14.5-foot roadway and 11-foot clearance. It is built as a queen post truss, with a galvanized steel panel roof resting on wooden ribs over the roof rafters. Both portals are board and batten with molding along the arch edge, and the side walls share the same board and batten finish. The floor is horizontal boards with two runways laid over them, and one longitudinal deck beam has been braced with metal plates. Builder Joseph Fulton is credited with its construction. The bridge is significant for engineering and transportation. Covered bridges were developed as a longer-lasting replacement for open wooden spans, and they served towns growing rapidly in the nineteenth century. Farms, saw mills and grist mills depended on bridges like this one to move goods and people. The nomination notes that Columbia County has built no covered bridges in roughly fifty years, which makes its surviving designs notable.
Significance in brief: The nomination places the bridge within the county's covered bridge tradition, which it describes as developed for growing towns and for transporting goods between farms and saw and grist mills. It is significant in the areas of engineering and transportation. The document notes that covered bridges have not been built in Columbia County for about fifty years, which it says makes the county's design and engineering unique.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 79003197, listed November 29, 1979. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-haiku-5-5, prompt v1.1-2026-10-29, confidence medium).
Key facts
| Address | SR 369, Catawissa |
|---|---|
| County | Columbia County |
| Listed | November 29, 1979 |
| Reference number | 79003197 |
| Resource type | Structure |
| Architect / builder | Joseph Fulton (builder) |
| Areas of significance | Engineering, Transportation |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Only small portions of the original stone and mortar abutments remain, with most stone covered or replaced by concrete; side wall coverings are in need of repair. |
| Acreage | 0.1 |
| Coordinates | 40.90013, -76.51169 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
For a publicly owned building or structure, listing mainly matters when federal funds, permits or licences are involved: projects then go through Section 106 review so effects on the property are considered. Listing also strengthens applications for preservation grants and, for leased income-producing uses, can enable the federal rehabilitation tax credit.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 79003197.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q7359816
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.