engineering

Old Blenheim Bridge

Old Blenheim Bridge is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Old Blenheim Bridge rather than just read about it. In short: Old Blenheim Bridge was a wooden covered bridge that spanned Schoharie Creek in North Blenheim, New York, United States. With an open span of 210 feet (64 m), it had the second longest span of any surviving single-span covered bridge in the world.

Key takeaways

Old Blenheim Bridge belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Old Blenheim Bridge to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Old Blenheim Bridge from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Old Blenheim Bridge was a wooden covered bridge that spanned Schoharie Creek in North Blenheim, New York, United States. With an open span of 210 feet (64 m), it had the second longest span of any surviving single-span covered bridge in the world. The 1862 Bridgeport Covered Bridge in Nevada County, California, currently undergoing repairs due to 1986 flooding (rebuild started in 2019) is longer overall at 233 feet (71 m) but is argued to have a 208 ft (63 m) clear span. The bridge, opened in 1855, was also one of the oldest of its type in the United States. It was destroyed by flooding resulting from Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. Rebuilding of the bridge commenced in 2017 and was completed in 2018.

History A group of local businessmen formed the Blenheim Bridge Company to construct the bridge. Nicholas Montgomery Powers was brought in from Vermont to build it. The bridge opened in 1855, and remained in use for vehicles until 1932, when a steel truss bridge was constructed nearby. Since then, the bridge was pedestrian only. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1983. On August 28, 2011, record flooding along the Schoharie Creek, due to Tropical Storm Irene, resulted in the bridge being washed away and completely destroyed.

Longest bridge There is a great deal of conflicting information, and competing claims, about the Blenheim Bridge. Many sources simply claimed the Old Blenheim Bridge as the longest surviving single-span covered bridge, which it was believed to be by total length of span. The Bridgeport Covered Bridge in California is longer in overall length. The New York Covered Bridge Society states that Blenheim bridge’s 219 feet (67 m) clear span was 2 feet (0.61 m) longer than "a bridge in California". A report by the U.S. Department of the Interior states that the Bridgeport Covered Bridge (HAER No. CA-41) has clear spans of 210 feet (64 m) on one side and 208 feet (63 m) on the other, while Blenheim Bridge (HAER No. NY-331) had a documented clear span of 210 feet (64 m) in the middle (1936 HABS drawings). In August 2003, measurements of post-repair Blenheim Bridge abutments were 209 feet 2 inches (63.75 m) on the upstream side, and 205 feet 6 inches (62.64 m) on the downstream side. Historically, the longest single-span covered bridge on record was Pennsylvania's McCall's Ferry Bridge with a claimed clear span of 360 feet (110 m) (built 1814–15, destroyed by ice jam 1817).

Destruction The bridge was destroyed on August 28, 2011, as a result of flooding from Tropical Storm Irene. A witness saw its roof deposited onto a modern bridge just downstream, when the bridge was swept away at about 1 p.m. Over subsequent months, the Schoharie County Highway Department collected pieces of the bridge up to about 30 miles (48 km) downstream. On July 21, 2015, National Historic Landmark designation for the bridge was withdrawn and the property was delisted from the National Register of Historic Places.

Replacement A replacement for the bridge was built in 2017, exactly reproducing the design of the original. It was built to stand 15 feet (4.6 m) higher to avoid future floods. Plans were for the bridge to "look and feel like it's the old bridge". Plans for replacement of the bridge took much time and effort; funding for reconstruction was at first opposed by FEMA, and the chair of a local committee characterized it as "a battle" to get approval. The construction cost $6.7 million, funded 75 percent by FEMA and 25 percent by New York State; it was started in early 2017. Preserved pieces of the original bridge were included as a memorial. The construction contract was advertised with bids due in October 2016 by the New York State's Governor's Office on Storm Recovery. On October 3, 2018, PBS broadcast an episode of the Nova documentary TV series about the reconstruction.

Gallery

See also List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in New York Hartland Bridge – longest covered bridge (multiple spans) in the world; Hartland, New Brunswick Smolen–Gulf Bridge – longest covered bridge (multiple spans) in the United States, Ashtabula County, Ohio Bartonsville Covered Bridge - a shorter covered bridge in Rockingham, Vermont, also destroyed by Tropical Storm Irene, replaced in 2013; it still carries traffic

References

External links Media related to Old Blenheim Bridge at Wikimedia Commons Photos of Blenheim Covered Bridge by Douglas Kerr Photos of Blenheim Covered Bridge by Charles Peifer Blenheim Bridge, at New York State Covered Bridge Society Archived August 8, 2007, at the Wayback Machine Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) No. NY-359, "Blenheim Covered Bridge, Spanning Schoharie River, North Blenheim, Schoharie County, NY", 2 photos, 4 measured drawings, 6 data pages, supplemental material Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. NY-331, "Blenheim Bridge, Spanning Schoharie Creek, River Road (now bypassed), North Blenheim, Schoharie County, NY", 13 photos, 12 data pages, 1 photo caption page Old Blenheim Bridge at Structurae

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Old Blenheim Bridge

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Old Blenheim Bridge claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Old Blenheim Bridge before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Old Blenheim Bridge ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Old Blenheim Bridge

In research: Old Blenheim Bridge appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Old Blenheim Bridge in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Old Blenheim Bridge is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Bridges completed in 1834, Buildings and structures destroyed by flooding, Buildings and structures in Schoharie County, New York, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Old Blenheim Bridge outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Old Blenheim Bridge in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Old Blenheim Bridge means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Old Blenheim Bridge out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Old Blenheim Bridge in simple terms?

Why does Old Blenheim Bridge matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Old Blenheim Bridge?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Old Blenheim Bridge.