Stonelick Covered Bridge, Stonelick, Ohio.

Welcome back to another episode of History in Your Own Backyard. I'm your host Suzy Selick here today in Claremont County, Ohio at the Stonelit Covered Bridge. I'm joined by John Carpenter. John, thank you for joining us here today. Thanks for having me. So John, how old is this beautiful bridge? This bridge was built in 1878. 1878. You were the construction manager on this on this bridge, is that right? Correct. We got some funding and rehabbed this in 2015. All right, very nice. So I guess you might be the first person to ask then, well the best person to ask, was it always here or was there another bridge prior to? How did people cross the Stonelit? I would think this was the first bridge here. Prior to that, I'd say they probably just crossed the creek with a wagon and a horse. John, talk to us about the specs of the bridge. The bridge is 140 foot long. That's huge for a covered bridge. Width of it, 16 foot 4 inches inside. We still consider that a one-way, so there's stop signs on each side. It is 15 foot tall. We keep an 11 foot six marker on that for that corner right there. It gets hit, but it also keeps the heavier trucks off because of the height. What's the weight limit? It is an eight ton bridge. Before it was closed, it was three. Oh. So eight ton, it doesn't get an ambulance across, but that's what we were comfortable with with the daily traffic. So John, talk to us about how much a bridge like this, because you did say it's a really long for a covered bridge, how much does this weigh, the actual bridge? I don't have exact numbers on it. I know when we were building it, each truss on each side, we had a crane on both sides and they were holding 40,000 pounds each. So 80,000 just in the truss that's not siding, that's not roof, that's not flooring. So a lot. Okay, okay, okay. Let's take it compared to like a steel through truss of the same magnitude. How does that weight difference or differ? I think a steel truss would weigh less. Okay. That seems crazy to think about. Okay, I can actually see that. The steel is stronger, so your members of the bridge are a lot smaller being steel. Okay. And then with it, you still have to cover it all. I mean the siding, we were debating, they wanted to go back two inch on the siding. It's had an inch siding on it for 130 years. That difference was close to 20,000 pounds, just with the siding. Just with the siding? Just with the siding, yes. So you don't want to build it so it can't carry itself. Right, right. But you know, the steel is a lot stronger and smaller members, so I would think it would weigh less, but I can't prove that. Okay, I was just curious. I'm also kind of curious, the National Register of Historic Places, has it found its way there yet? Yes, 1974. All right. It was our last cover bridge in the county, so we we went through the process of getting that added. John, this is a how truss design. Can you talk to us about that? Just kind of give the details. Yes, a how truss was the first ones that incorporated steel into their timber cover bridge. You can see in there, they'll have vertical rods in there that are steel, and then they made a, what they call a thrust block. They have them at the top and the bottoms. That saved a lot of fabrication from intertwining and the connections of your truss. Okay, yeah. So they went, they could pre-cut these and kind of build them in sight instead of having to fabricate as you went. So I think his first patent on them was like 19, or 1840. 1840. 1840. And then I think those included the wood, and then I don't have a date when he started doing them out of steel. Talk to us, there has been, right, like around a lot of covered bridges, always stories about things that are like going on and, you know, people up to no good trouble, that kind of thing. So talk to us about a little bit of that, right, and maybe some of the measures that you guys have taken in order to, you know, protect and preserve the dignity of this beautiful bridge. Over the years, we've had some arson attempts on it. We've had some vehicle accidents in there. 1983, we had a garbage truck go through the floor of it. We had to cut and drop that truck down into the creek, and they drove the truck out. No, they didn't. Yes. So we should have some pics on that. Crazy, when you think about it. And then the most recent way had already applied for funding to have this bridge rehabbed. We had another garbage truck go across it not only once, but it came back across it. It broke about every floor joist in that bridge. Um, so we closed that left it closed until the rehab started. John, I understand that Claremont County only has one existing covered bridge left in it. Stone Lick covered bridge is it, huh? Yes. Do you know about how many covered bridges the county's had throughout the years? Claremont County had, hmm, 30 to 40, give or take. Okay. All right. So as somebody who's pretty close to this entire project, you and I were talking offline a little bit before. You had a personal experience. I'm going to open the floor up right now. If you'd like to share that would love that. If not, I'm gonna ask you one more question here. Um, that personal experience that you had, if you just wanted to touch on, you know, maybe something that you wanted to say about this bridge, you were obviously, you know, very masterful and and getting it all together. So, um, during our rehab, um, the bridge collapsed on us. Um, at a super talented team. Um, they were employed by the writer company. That's all they do is cover bridges. I think this was their hundredth and ninth bridge that they had restored. Um, there was four of us on the bridge that morning when it went in the creek. Um, scary day. Uh, we all got off unhurt. We went, we had a lot of snow at the time. With it melting, we had flood issues coming. So what do you do? You have 140 ft long structure laying in the creek. So we right into, um, trying to get it pulled out. So brought in two cranes. We were working seven days a week to get that bridge out of the creek. Once we got it all out, sorted it all out, took every every board apart, inspected every board on this structure. Uh, we were able to save 57% of the bridge. The original bridge, um, ordered new parts, started putting it back together. We spent about a year out here building it. But when we opened it, there was zero rot. We were able to strengthen the lower cords in the bridge, do some other stuff that made the bridge stronger than it was when it was originally built. So once we got done with it, it was, it was fabulous. I mean, you just don't get to see that every day. Yeah. Yeah. And to even have that personal experience that you did. Thank you for sharing that with us. Yeah. With the rehab, we've added guard rail, try to keep people from hitting the actual trust. Um, we have lighting and we have video surveillance now, so they're up to nothing or no good. Yeah. Yeah. I can catch him. Okay. So john, do you have some words of wisdom that you could, you know, pass on one of one of my through lines is making sure that my generation, the next generation are prepared to carry history, you know, with us. So what would you say, how are we going to make sure that this bridge is hanging out for another 100 years? I think the county has done what we can do. Um, as far as the video surveillance and the strengthening of it so it can last when the bridge was designed, you know, it was carrying wagons and horses. So the loads and the cars and the traffic today is not what it was designed for. Um, this one was in an odd spot. We weren't able to bypass it and a lot of the funding and and the bridges that you see get rehab like this, they go beside it with a new bridge, right? The law enforcement area. Um, the neighbors are great. Um, we're just hoping for the best. I mean, we have, we have had some heavy loads co crossed. Um, knock on wood, no damage. Yeah. As far as long term, if we had a structure like this, I think it should be in a park with a road alongside. Um, simply for salvaging it for the sake of salvation. Yes. It's scary. Every time I get a phone call from one of the neighbors, is it, is it vandalism? Is it a heavy truck? Like I said, knock on wood, they're great. Everybody seems to respect it. Um, the video surveillance, most of that, what I'm seeing is this younger generation stopping and getting pictures of their fancy car in this bridge. And that's, that's great. You keep it up. Selfie generation, keep the pyromaniacs away and the selfie generation here. There you go. I think that's, that's great advice actually. So, okay. Well, john, thank you again for joining us here today. Thank you for watching another episode of history in your own backyard. I'm your host Susie Selick. Thanks for joining us here today in Claremont County here at the stone lit covered bridge. John Carpenter. This was a treat. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. And remember travel slowly and stop often. Bye for now.