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Leeper Bridge One of County's Oldest; Movement Underway to Preserve It(Kdltor’a not*—This la tha 1 aaventh of a aarle** M • nvt-rad I UtnXiion In OtltriN] Coiltfvwith Information and plotur#** * provided by Mr a. Floyd T. Pat-taraon, 1903 Stewart Ave.)Leeper bridge (No. 08). located in Liberty Twp. on County Road 4 2l*r miles southeast of North Salem, is one of the oldest covered bridges in Guernsey County, having been constructed in the t late 1840s or early 1850s The lo-l_ cation of the structure was known 1 is the Birmingham Road Crossing J on what was once the old star mail route, o The bridge has the distinction *t ot being the only covered bridge in the country' having horizontal weatherboarding and a circular arch type truss, known as the Buss King Post. It is a one-span structure 70 feet five inches long with a 12-foot roadway and an overall width of 14 feet. It has a corrugated tin roof and a square portal. Wooden pins hold top braces, with bolts and nails being used in the aide braces. Regarded as one of the sturdiest covered bridges in the county, it withstood the ravage of the 1913 flood in which water was about one foot deep in the bridge.Leeper bridge was built by John Clark who owned the farm in that locality. At one time there was a stone dam about five or six feet high below the bridge The dam was built in order to provide, waterpower for an pld time up and down saw mill. The bridge was named for John Leeper, who owned the farm surrounding the bridge and operated the saw’ mill. Now only a riffle, a fill-in for the dam, remains where the dam used to be.Leeper bridge ii one of four covered bridges to be eliminated upon the completion of Salt Fork Lake. In 1961 a campaign was launched by the Southern Ohio Covered Bridge Association to try and preserve one or two of tnese old* structures in the Salt Fork Creek area It has been proposed that this bridge be moved to the City Park Those favoring the proposition are hopeful that organizations and others would support the proposal with the hope that an example of this heiitage of America’s past inGuernsey County can be preserved for future generations
Newspaper Details
Cambridge Daily Jeffersonian
Cambridge, Ohio, US
Wed, Jul 31, 1963
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Evelyn B.
NA, NA 18 Mar 2025
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