Burkeville Covered Bridge

The Burkeville Covered Bridge is a historic covered bridge in Conway, Massachusetts. It is 106 feet long and carries Main Poland Road over the South River.

The earliest bridge on the site was probably erected about 1850. It was probably built when Main Poland Road was rerouted to suit changes in the water impoundments for the industrial facilities in Burkeville at the time. In 1869, this original bridge was devastated in a massive flood. The following year, in 1970, the current bridge was built.  After being weakened by a hurricane in New England in 1938, it was closed. The bridge was severely damaged after the hurricane. Its stone abutments were faced in concrete in the years after that. Its roof partially collapsed in 1975 due to heavy snow, but volunteers from the community helped to reconstruct it. It was closed for safety reasons in 1985, but following modifications, it reopened to vehicular traffic in November 2013.

It’s a unique example of a multiple king rod bridge with iron tensioning verticals (a modified Howe truss system) in the region. It is also one of the few 19th-century covered bridges to survive in Massachusetts. In 1988, the Burkeville Covered Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places.