Relocated McClurg bridge takes center stage at annual festival
Members of Iron City Guards military re-enactment group dressed Saturday in uniforms that were used in U.S. wars between 1812 and 1944 at the McClurg Covered Bridge in Hanover Township.
World War II re-enactors Mathew Dugal of Cleveland, Ohio, right, and Jim DeAngelis of Castle Shannon discuss U.S. Army gear with Anthony Wolanski, 9, left, and his brother, Andrew, 6, at the Covered Bridge Festival Saturday in Hanover Township.
The McClurg Covered Bridge dating to 1880 is the centerpiece of Hanover Park at 11 Municipal Drive in Hanover Township.
The McClurg Covered Bridge deteriorated by 1987 to the point it was barely passable along Devil’s Den Road in Hanover Township.
The King Post truss span also known as a “kissing bridge” was still cherished then by local residents who decided to save it and relocate it, beginning in May 1987, to the nearby Hanover Park, where it stands today as a pedestrian crossing.
“They took the bridge apart piece by piece,” Hanover Township road foreman Dale Haneick said Saturday, when the span took center stage at one of 10 sites that participated in the 46th annual 2016 Washington and Greene counties’ Covered Bridge Festival.
“We saved its life,” said Haneick, who also is chairman of the township’s board of supervisors.
Rain clouds Saturday likely kept some of the vendors from attending the Hanover leg of the festival, organizers said. But, that afternoon, children and adults were entertained by members of the military re-enactment group Iron City Guards of Pittsburgh, who fired period rifles and displayed U.S. war tents and supplies used between 1813 and 1944.
“They’re shooting blanks,” said Chris Sedlak of Burgettstown, a member of the group who dressed Saturday in a uniform style that would have been worn by a U.S. Army supply sergeant before he was deployed from the United States to warfare in Europe.
These bridges with red vertical siding and windows earned the nickname “kissing bridges” because it was where young couples once hid to sneak kisses.
The annual festival will continue from noon to 6 p.m. today at multiple sites: in Washington County, Henry and Ebenezer bridges in Mingo Creek County Park, Nottingham Township; Wyit Sprowls Bridge in East Finley Township Park; Pine Bank Bridge in Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village near Avella; McClurg Bridge, Hanover Township; Krepps Bridge, Mt. Pleasant Township; Hughes Bridge, Amwell Township; and Brownlee Bridge in McGuffey Community Park; and in Greene County, the White Bridge on Roberts Run Road, Greene Township, in the Waynesburg vicinity, and Carmichaels Bridge.