Claremont · est. 1895
Bunker Hill Covered Bridge
One of only two surviving wooden covered bridges in North Carolina, spanning Lyle’s Creek on its original lattice trusses. A National Historic Landmark, and one of the most photographed structures in the western Piedmont.
Designated a National Civil Engineering Landmark in 2001, the Bunker Hill Covered Bridge is the only remaining example in wood of the Improved Lattice Truss patented by General Herman Haupt. It joins the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and Dorton Arena in representing North Carolina on that prestigious list.
One of only two original covered bridges remaining in North Carolina — the other being Mt. Pisgah in Randolph County — it was built in 1895 by Andy L. Ramsour. In 1894 the Catawba County Commissioners had called on the owners of nearby Bunker Hill Farm to build and maintain a bridge crossing Lyle’s Creek on the old Island Ford Road, a former Native American trail. Ramsour, keeper of the Horseford covered bridge over the Catawba River, likely found Haupt’s design in a popular book on bridge building.
Originally an open span, the ninety-one-foot bridge was covered in 1900; its wooden shingles were replaced with a tin roof in 1921. (Bridges were covered to protect their timbers from the elements — travelers’ reprieve from rain and snow was only a happy consequence.) The Bolick family donated the bridge to the Catawba County Historical Association in 1985, and in 1994 it was restored by Arnold M. Graton, a master bridgewright from Ashland, New Hampshire.
A landmark of engineering — and of history
Brigadier General Herman Haupt (1817–1905) was Chief of Military Railroads for the Union Army during the Civil War — a Philadelphia-born engineer, author, professor, inventor, and industrialist. His improved lattice truss refined Ithiel Town’s earlier patents, removing redundant members to create a more efficient design described in his 1851 General Theory of Bridge Construction.
The bridge also carries associations with the American Revolution. Following the Battle of Cowpens in 1781, General Morgan detached 531 British prisoners under guard along the Island Ford Road — the very road the bridge rests on — crossing Lyle’s Creek at the Bunker Hill Ford on their way to Virginia.
Visiting
The bridge is located two miles east of Claremont on Hwy. 70, and the grounds are open dawn to dusk daily. Leashed pets are welcome — please clean up after them. No fishing or kayaking is allowed. Your membership directly benefits the ongoing restoration of the bridge and its grounds.