Editing Covered bridge (section)

====United States====
[[File:Schuylkill Permanent Bridge at High Street, the first covered bridge in America.jpg|thumb|Schuylkill Permanent Bridge in Philadelphia, the first documented covered bridge in America]]
About 14,000 covered bridges have been built in the United States,<ref name="fhwa-manual">{{cite book |title=Covered Bridge Manual (PUBLICATION NO. FHWA-HRT-04-098) |date=April 2005 |publisher=U. S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration |location=McLean, VA |page=3 |url=https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/infrastructure/structures/04098/04098.pdf |access-date=27 February 2020}}</ref> mostly in the years 1825 to 1875.<ref name="fhwa-ohio" /> The first documented was the [[Market_Street_Bridge_(Philadelphia)#First_bridge_-_Schuylkill_Permanent_Bridge|''Permanent Bridge'']], completed in 1805 to span the [[Schuylkill River]] in [[Philadelphia]].<ref name="structuremag2013">{{cite web |url=https://www.structuremag.org/?p=817 |title=The Permanent Bridge |work=Structure Magazine |last1=Griggs |first1=Frank Jr. |date=October 2013 |access-date=9 January 2019}}</ref><ref>Christianson, Justine, et al. [https://www.nps.gov/hdp/CoveredBridges2015med.pdf ''Covered Bridges and the Birth of American Engineering'']. Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, Historic American Engineering Record, 2015.</ref> However, most other early examples of covered bridges do not appear until the 1820s. Extant bridges from that decade include [[New York (state)|New York]]'s  [[Hyde Hall Bridge]] and [[Pennsylvania]]'s [[Hassenplug Bridge]], both built in 1825, and the [[Haverhill–Bath Covered Bridge]] and the [[Roberts Covered Bridge]], in [[New Hampshire]] and  [[Ohio]] respectively, both built in 1829.<ref name="DOT" />
[[File:Fifth Street (covered) bridge, entrance, circa 1877 - DPLA - d729e9efdd48d34d1fce20fb80c6bd89.jpeg|thumb|Covered bridge in Macon, Georgia, 1877]]
The longest covered bridge ever built was constructed in 1814 in [[Lancaster County, Pennsylvania|Lancaster County]], Pennsylvania, and spanned over a mile in length, but was destroyed by ice and flooding in 1832.<ref name="usdot-fha_ohio">{{cite web |title=Ohio's Vanishing Covered Bridges - Back in Time - General Highway History - Highway History - Federal Highway Administration |url=https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/back0804.cfm |website=[[Federal Highway Administration|Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)]] |publisher=USDOT Federal Highway Administration |access-date=4 March 2021}}</ref> The longest, historical covered bridges remaining in the United States are the [[Cornish–Windsor Covered Bridge|Cornish–Windsor Bridge]], spanning the Connecticut River between New Hampshire and Vermont, and [[Medora Covered Bridge|Medora Bridge]], spanning the East Fork of the White River in Indiana. Both lay some claim to the superlative depending upon how the length is measured.<ref>{{cite web |title=Covered Bridge Trivia |url=http://www.coveredbridgesociety.org/cb-faq.html |website=www.coveredbridgesociety.org |publisher=National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges |access-date=27 February 2020}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Brady |first=Matthew |date=2023-07-17 |title=Bridging the Past and Present |url=https://americanlifestylemag.com/life-culture/travel/bridging-the-past-and-present/ |access-date=2023-08-20 |website=American Lifestyle Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>

In the mid-19th century, the use of cheaper [[wrought iron]] and [[cast iron]] led to metal rather than timber trusses.<ref name="DOT">{{cite web |url=https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/infrastructure/structures/04098/ |title=Covered Bridge Manual |publisher=Federal Highway Administration |access-date=9 October 2012}}</ref> Metal structures did not need protection from the elements, so they no longer needed to be covered. The bridges also became obsolete because most were single-lane, had low width and height clearances, and could not support the heavy loads of modern traffic.<ref name="DOT" />

{{As of|2004}}, there were about 750 left,<ref name="conwill">{{cite book|last1=Conwill|first1=Joseph D.|title=Covered bridges across North America|date=2004|publisher=MBI Pub. Co|isbn=0-7603-1822-0|location=St. Paul, Minn.}}</ref> mostly in eastern and northern states. The 2021 [[World Guide to Covered Bridges]] lists 840 covered bridges in the U.S., although it states that only 670 of those were standing when the 1959 edition was published.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Caswell |first1=William S. |title=World Guide to Covered Bridges |date=31 October 2021 |publisher=National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges |location=Concord, New Hampshire |isbn=978-0-578-30263-8 |pages=xii |edition=2021}}</ref> The tallest (35 feet high), built in 1892, is the [[Felton Covered Bridge]], just north of [[Santa Cruz, California]].<ref name=":0" />