Hillsgrove Covered Bridge: A Reminder of our Place in the World (Day Eight)

According to the featured article on Wikipedia today, the Hillsgrove Covered Bridge "is a Burr arch truss covered bridge over Loyalsock Creek in Hillsgrove Township, Sullivan County, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It was built circa 1850 and is 186 feet (56.7 m) long."

Here is a neat factoid: "On July 2, 1973, the Hillsgrove bridge was the first covered bridge in Sullivan County added to the NRHP [National Register of Historic Places]."

As well,

Pennsylvania had the first covered bridge in the United States, and has had the most such bridges since the 19th century. They were a transition between stone and metal bridges, with the roof and sides protecting the wooden structure from the weather. The Hillsgrove bridge has load-bearing Burr arches sandwiching multiple vertical king posts on each side, for strength and rigidity. It was built by Sadler Rodgers, who also constructed the nearby Forksville Covered Bridge in the same year, with a similar design. (Emphasis added.)

Within the history of human structures, the transition from the stone age to the steel age required a period of wooden construction, as late as the 19th Century. As charming and romantic as it is to craft a human story wherein the earth's environment--that is, with its plants, animals, and forests--laid ready its resources for easy utilization, something as rustic as a covered bridge reminds us we were not born with our hands in wood or with a harmonious role in the eco-system.  Moreover, we had to wrestle, battle, rage against our planet so that it could be the now hospitable place we call home.