Buskirk Bridge is a wooden covered bridge that connects Washington County, New York on the north end to Rensselaer County on the south end and like the connecting roads and the fire station just south of it, is named after the hamlet on Rensselaer side at the junction of New York State Route 67 . The bridge, which crosses the Hoosic River is one of 29 historic covered bridges in New York State . The bridge, service roads and hamlet all take their names from the local Van Buskirk family.
5-585: Town and Howe truss designs were patented by Ithiel Town in 1820 and William Howe in 1840, respectively. The Buskirk Bridge a Howe truss design, and was built to replace a previous Burr arch truss. It is perhaps the earliest Howe truss bridge that survives in New York State. A topographic map of its location appears in its individual inventory document prepared by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation in 1977. It
10-485: Is a cross between Town's lattice truss and the bowstring truss . It was developed in Ireland as a wide-span shallow rise roof truss for industrial structures. McTear & Co of Belfast , Ireland began fabricating these trusses in wood starting around 1866. By 1899, spans of 24 metres (79 ft) had been achieved, and in the 20th century, shipyards and airplane hangars demanded ever greater clear spans. Howard Carroll built
15-488: Is a form of truss bridge that uses many small, closely spaced diagonal elements forming a lattice . The design was patented in 1820 by architect Ithiel Town . Originally a means of erecting a substantial bridge from mere planks employing lower–skilled labor, rather than heavy timbers and more expensive carpenters and equipment, the lattice truss has also been constructed using many relatively light iron or steel members. The individual elements are more easily handled by
20-721: Is one of four Washington County covered bridges submitted for listing in the National Register of Historic Places in a multiple property submission. The others are the Rexleigh Bridge , the Eagleville Bridge , and Shushan Bridge . All four were listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 8, 1972. The bridge continues in use for vehicles, and is maintained jointly by Washington County and Rensselaer County . Town truss A lattice truss bridge
25-460: The construction workers, but the bridge also requires substantial support during construction. A simple lattice truss will transform the applied loads into a thrust, as the bridge will tend to change length under load. This is resisted by pinning the lattice members to the top and bottom chords, which are more substantial than the lattice members, but which may also be fabricated from relatively small elements rather than large beams. The Belfast truss
#753246