Rudolph & Arthur Covered Bridge (1886)

Hickory Hill, Chester County [38-15-01]

From the Lincoln-Stevens bridge, I headed across Hickory Hill and easily able to find Camp Bonsai Road.

As I drove down the twisty road, and got to the bottom, I spotted ran off and Arthur in front of me. I slowed to a stop, looking for a place to shoot and also parked my car.

Crossing the bridge from West to East, I parked on the side of the road, grabbed my gear, and headed back towards the bridge, all the while as a large dog barked in the background from a nearby house.

As I approach the bridge, I noticed the little shack on the other side of the road, so I set up in the middle-of-the-road framing the red shack in the center of my image.

Moving forward some more, and keeping in mind the red shack, I did my detailed interior view of the bridge.

Once my detail picture was completed, I started through the bridge looking for a sign or plaque, my IRA was beginning to see some interesting tones deep within the bridge,which I made a mental note of and continued to the other side.

From the East side of the bridge I started upstream. After about 75 feet I looked over my shoulder and set up for the following shot.

The dog was still barking and I was getting surprised that nobody had surfaced to see what the dog was barking at. I could hear somebody inside crashing about which made it even more odd that no one had investigated.

I continued up the backside looking for a place to easily enter the water, and finally found a spot and carefully waited in. Towards the middle of the creek, there was a shallow sandbar and a place to set up for my next shot.

From my position in the center of the Creek, I moved downstream and towards the underside of the West entrance.

Once I finally got underneath the bridge, the water level had risen to about mid-thigh. I was able to set up my tripod and capture another undercarriage of a covered bridge.

This underneath was in stark contrast to the previous bridge, Linton-Stevens. The dark brown undercarriage did not reflect nearly as much light, but with the angle of the sun, light was reflecting off the water and illumining some the structural details of the underside.

From here I continued downstream, looking to do an upstream shot of the full side but with the sun at the current angle I would have been shooting directly into it and decided against.

Crossing over the creek, I got up on the East side bank and back to my car, where I started to pack up.

After I had removed the camera from the tripod, I noticed my battery was dying, so I decided to do some hand-held shots, finishing off the battery.

When I was back inside the bridge, the sunlight was reflecting off the water and up into the bridge, giving the wood a very warm tone.

With the final few moments on my battery I was able to capture this final image.

Now that my battery was completely dead, and I had no extras with me, it was time to head home.

All in all, it was a good day of shooting.

Images Featured In

Destination Travel Magazine (June 2011) – Covered Bridges of Lancaster County

• White Rock Forge
• Weaver Mill
• Pool Forge-Wimer

Destination Travel Magazine (May 2011) – Covered Bridges of Chester County

• Mercer
• Speakman #1
• Pine Grove
• Linton Stevens
• Jackson Sawmill
• Rudolph & Arthur
• Glen Hope

Destination Travel Magazine (April 2011) – Covered Bridges of Chester County

• Bartram
• Gibson
• Kennedy
• Knox-Valley Forge
• Larkin’s
• Rapps
• Sheeder-Hall

Reference Material

• Covered Bridge Table [Completed Project List]
  – This list includes GPS coordinates, historical information and dimensions.
• Google Map of Covered Bridges photographed by Andrew Seymour

Related posts:

1. Linton Stevens Covered Bridge (1886)
2. Rapps Covered Bridge (1866)
3. Bartram Covered Bridge (1860) – My First Covered Bridge
4. Gibson’s Covered Bridge (1872) – Part 2
5. Speakman #1 Covered Bridge (1881)