The 1853 Barrackville Covered Bridge in Marion County, West Virginia. Built by local bridge builder Lemuel Chenoweth, the structure is a modified arched Burr truss, with siding added twenty years after the bridge's construction. The Barrackville Covered Bridge spans 145 feet in a single span across Buffalo Creek.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Landmarks, this 148-foot, single-lane bridge was originally built in 1853 by Eli and Lemuel Chenoweth, West Virginia’s pioneer bridge builders. It is an excellent example of a modified Burr truss and it is in near original condition. April 29, 1863, it was saved from destruction during the Jones-Imboden Raid preliminary to the Battle of Fairmont. 

Barrackville is the home to the second oldest covered bridge in West Virginia and the first such bridge in Marion County. Barrackville was founded in 1767 by William “Indian Billy” Ice and named in honor of an early settler, John Barrack.  Construction of the bridge was completed in 1853, the same year that the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad reached Barrackville and was part of the Fairmont & Wheeling Turnpike.

The only hostile army ever in Marion County crossed this bridge on the morning of April 29, 1863. General William E. “Grumble” Jones at first planned the destruction of the bridge but decided to spare it with persuasion from the Ice family, nearby mill owners, and Southern sympathizers.  However, two other B&O bridges in the area were destroyed by “Jones Raiders”.

In 1850, Lemuel Chenoweth, a cabinet maker by trade (also a self-taught civil engineer, and often described as a mechanic, inventor, draftsman, and craftsman) arrived in Richmond, VA with a model of his bridge packed in his saddle bags.  He brought the model before the Board of Public Works which was then considering bids for the construction of bridges. Chenoweth assembled his model “made of poplar and nary a nail in ‘er”.  He suspended the frail-looking toy between two chairs, stood upon it, and challenged his competitors to put their models to the same test!

Needless to say, Lemuel Chenoweth along with his brother, Eli, are associated with the building of this and many other covered bridges in West Virginia, between 1851 and his death in 1884.

The construction of stonework was given to Squire James E. Conaway and the masons were the forefathers of many prominent Barrackville citizens.

Built at a cost of $1,852, the Barrackville Covered Bridge remained in use for over 130 years.  It was the only covered bridge in the state that supported traffic loads without the use of modern reinforcement, a tribute to the expert craftsmanship of the Chenoweth brothers.  It has been said that the 159-year-old engineering marvel was built by the most talented bridge builder in America.

The Barrackville Bridge, using a 145-foot-long modified Burr truss (which integrates an arch into the truss framework), was fully restored in 1999 and has been bypassed with a modern road and bridge. 

The covered bridges that remain across the state possess intrinsic beauty and charm, a testimony to the craftsmanship of their builders. Their practical straightforward design created long-lasting structures, which have survived the gales of war, floods, ice, and even grievous fires over the past century and a half.

Length of largest span: 132 ft.
Total length: 146 ft.
Deck width: 15.5 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 11.8 ft.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.

Located at:  N39 30.361  W80 10.074    -    WGCB #48-25-02

Photographed in September 2021.