Exterior of eastern bridge portal

Digital image of an east perspective view of the covered bridge and Michael Fulp (Bridge Keeper's) House. This photo is from "The Passing Scene," vol. 3, page 202, by George Meiser, IX and Gloria Meiser published in Reading, 1984, and is included here with the generous permission of George Meiser IX. Image #2 is another early 20th century view, taken before installation of the utility poles to the right of the bridge ramp. The horizontal racks on top of the bridge portal would have carried the electric and phone cables. It is obvious that the proximity of the bridge seemed to warrant the label “Bridge Keeper’s” in referring to Michael Fulp’s 1783 stone house. However, since the house was constructed 50 years prior to the bridge, and Michael Fulp died 25 years before the bridge existed, the house has been re-dedicated to Michael Fulp and named after him. This is consistent with the nomenclature applied to other dwellings in the Trust’s holdings, and a more rational cultural basis for naming the building than invoking the nebulous responsibilities of an anonymous and un-documented “bridge keeper.” According to local tradition, Alice Garber lived in the "Bridge Keeper's" house in the 1940s and performed duties including shoveling snow out from the portals for motor vehicles. Earlier "keepers" were believed to have shoveled snow onto the bridge deck to facilitate sleigh traffic and to have lit gas lights for night travel across the river. Photo 28 is a perspective view of the bridge from the road on the opposite side of the river from Morlatton. The roadbed shown is now PA Route 724. This view shows the arched side walls serving as weather-boards protecting the long Burr-arched timbers set longitudinally inside the plank walls as the primary “tension-members” supporting the bridge [see arches in interior photo MVCovBr]. Both photos also show the openings above the board side-walls, which afford three functions: Lighting into the bridge; ventilation in warmer weather; and as pressure-relieving valves during high winds through the bridge, preventing it from becoming a covered wind-tunnel. The Eric Sloane drawing also shows the timber Burr-arches [named after the patent-holding inventor of this arched-truss bridge support system], and the openings, screened in this drawing, above the side-walls. Larry Ward, May 2022