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Pylesville or Pyle's Mill Covered Bridge

COUNTY WORLD GUIDE # CROSSES TRUSS SPANS LENGTH BUILT GONE
Harford MD-12-28x Broad Creek Unk 1 45 1866 1885
Little is known about the Pylesville Covered Bridge in the north central section of Harford County. The bridge crossed Broad Creek on Old Pylesville Road near the intersection of St. Marys Road (previously a part of Old St. Marys Road) and close to Nathan Pyle's Mill.
Location of Pylesville Covered Bridge
Location of Covered Bridge at Pylesville. Base map is Simon Martinet, 1865, just prior to construction of bridge.

What we do know about the bridge is how detailed the County Commissioners were about the its construction. The Aegis and Intelligencer provided an advertisement to Bridge Builders for proposals to build the Pylesville Bridge on April 20, 1866:
The County Commissioners of Harford county will receive sealed proposals at their offices, in Bel Air, until 12 o'clock noon, Monday, 7th May, 1866, for building a bridge over Broad Creek at Pylesville, of the following plan and specification, viz: 45 feet between abutments; abutment walls to be 8 feet, 6 inches above low water mark, 4 feet thick at bottom, battering to 3 feet at top; wingwalls to be of sufficient length to make an easy grade on to the bridge, 3 feet, 6 inches thick at bottom, battering to 3 feet, 6 inches at grade of road; guard walls to be 2 feet, 6 inches high above grade of road, 18 inches thick covered with flag stones; foundation to be deep enough to ensure a solid bottom and to avoid undermining; floor to be 14 feet in clear, laid with 2 inch white oak plank; bridge to be 18 feet high to top of plates; walls sills white oak, 9 X 12 inches; cords, 6 X 12; double cross sills and joists, 6 X 12 inches; main braces and posts 8 X 8 inches; all other timbers to be 6 X 8 inches; framing timbers to be of white oak, weatherboarding to be of common white pine boards; covered with slate or good shingles, and to extend 5 feet over the floor at each end; bolted and stirraped with iron where necessary; to fill in the abutments and complete the road and bridge for travel.
The Havre de Grace Republican, on August 8, 1885, reported that the bridge at Pyesville was lost in the destructive flood of August 1, 1885. The covered bridge was likely replaced with an iron bridge. The flood of 1885 rose to a level on Broad Creek of five and a half feet higher than any time in the last forty years.

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