Section 1 of 5
The Roof
Why it is there, and what it is protecting. 4 guides, filed by what the structure is doing rather than by where the bridge is.
In this section
- A Roof Over a Bridge Is a Maintenance DecisionUntreated timber lasts a handful of years wet and many decades dry. The roof and siding exist to keep water off the trusses; everything picturesque about them is a side effect of that arithmetic.
- Why the Siding Stops ShortOpen strips under the eaves and above the deck let air move and light in. What that gap is for.
- The PortalThe opening at each end sets the clearance and takes the damage. Why it is the most-repaired part of the structure.
- Fire and FloodThe two things that actually destroy them, and why a covered bridge is more likely to leave in a river than to fall down.
Every entry names the truss and what that truss solves. The roof is treated as the engineering decision it was: timber lasts decades dry and years wet.