Upper Bucks recovers a piece of its history

Aside from the musk of new paint and freshly cut wood, and an added foot in height, Mood's Covered Bridge in Bucks County's East Rockhill Township has reassumed the look and feel it has carried since 1874.

Three and a half years after vandals burned the bridge down, it reopens today, the past restored, and with it the not-so-quaint prospects of backed-up traffic on the bridge's one-lane stretch of Blooming Glen Road.

It is a rare example of resurrecting the past even when it risks impinging on our obsessive need to get where we are going as fast as possible.

"The community has been anxious in waiting for it to reopen," Township Manager Anne Klepfer said. "And now, it is really like having an old friend back."

Originally, the idea of restoring the bridge over Perkiomen Creek in Upper Bucks County was not met with total local support. There were those who wanted the convenience of a more modern two-lane bridge to speed traffic along.

But supporters of a covered bridge circulated numerous petitions urging East Rockhill to seek the rebuilding. With the decision to go ahead, township supervisors cited the bridge as an "iconic symbol of the township's heritage." With the reopening, "more than anything, it provides closure to the trauma of having lost it, and the way we lost it through arson," Klepfer said.

In June 2004, six college students from Pennridge torched the bridge down to its support beams. It reopened a short time later as an uncovered bridge, but closed again nearly a year ago to be restored to its original style.

Though the pain of an arson committed by local residents still lingers with some, the reopening helps lay the incident to rest. "We're celebrating it as a bridge to our future," Klepfer said, "and we hope that it'll be here for another 150 years."

The state Department of Transportation, the bridge's owner, supported East Rockhill and Bucks County in rebuilding Mood's. But the agency agreed with opponents that it would cost more to maintain such a bridge than a more modern type. Mood's Covered Bridge's most recent reconstruction cost $850,000, using beams and supports from the existing deck.

A two-lane, 120-foot-long, 28-foot-wide bridge would cost about $750,000, PennDot spokesman Gene Blaum said.

In 1997, PennDot spent $277,813 on restoration work for the bridge. Seven years later, a 12-foot-tall garbage truck broke eight of 12 roof supports on the 11-foot clearance bridge. While it was being repaired and traffic was being sent elsewhere, the college students set the bridge on fire. They were arrested and served 18 days in jail. They also were ordered to serve 1,000 hours of community service and to pay $66,666 each in restitution.

After the fire, PennDot spent $50,000 to reopen Mood's as an uncovered bridge with added guardrails.

PennDot agreed to rebuild the covered bridge in March last year, but only if it could pass ownership onto Bucks County upon its reopening. PennDot assumed the $850,000 construction cost, while the county paid for fireproofing, and the township insured the bridge.

East Rockhill and PennDot took extra measures against the bridge's two biggest threats - vandalism and oversized vehicles - by applying a flame-retardant layer before painting and raising the bridge's clearance to 12 feet.

In addition to Mood's, PennDot owns three of the 12 covered bridges in Bucks County. The Loux Covered Bridge in Plumstead Township received roofing and beam replacements in 1948, and rehabilitation in 1996. Sheard's Mill Covered Bridge in Haycock and East Rockhill Townships required reconstruction in 1971, and Erwinna Covered Bridge in Tinicum Township was rebuilt in 1996.

Covered-bridge maintenance also requires added manual labor and carpentry work, Blaum said.

"It's not a design we do for bridges these days, but we understand the importance of it," Blaum said.

Because of Mood's Covered Bridge's one-lane design, the bridge is credited with having a "traffic-calming effect," similar to speed bumps, Klepfer said. However, growing developments south of the bridge and the expanding Bucks County Community College campus, Pennridge School District, and shopping center on the north side have increased traffic volume in recent years. About 2,000 vehicles used the bridge each day before it burned down.

Prior to the closing, Pennridge School District regularly bused its students across Mood's Bridge to its Fifth Street schools, fueling the traffic logjam, Klepfer said.

"We had a steady stream of buses over the bridge, and they were not yielding to oncoming cars," Klepfer said.

Primarily for safety reasons, East Rockhill decided to make Blooming Glen Road a one-way street northbound when the bridge reopens.

"Now they will be able to use the bridge to bus students to school in the morning, but not to drop them off in the afternoon," Klepfer said.

The number of covered bridges, once an evocative staple of Pennsylvania, has been steadily declining. The state once had 1,500 covered bridges; now about 200 remain, including 12 in Bucks County. Mood's was one of three county covered bridges to be destroyed by arson since 1985.

The Bucks County Covered Bridge Festival, which raised money for fire retardant for Mood's reconstruction last year, recently inspired a group to focus on preserving the covered bridges left in the county. The Bucks County Covered Bridge Society will sponsor a rededication ceremony for Mood's on April 12 based on one overriding sentiment.

"It's recognizing that there are only 12 left, and that if we don't preserve them now, they could be lost forever," Klepfer said.