Timothy Palmer and the Permanent Bridge

Abstract

Timothy Palmer had built notable bridges across the Merrimack, Kennebec, Connecticut, and Potomac Rivers and across the Great Bay of the Piscataqua River in Maine when he was selected to build the first permanent, as contrasted to a floating, bridge across the Schuylkill River at Philadelphia in 1803. The bridge was the first covered bridge in the United States and its 195-ft central span was second only to his Piscataqua Bridge in span length. He has been called the “Nestor of American Bridge Builders.”