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Van Tran Flat or Livingston Manor or Sprague's, Sullivan County

If you find errors in the data please contact Bill Caswell.

If you would like to provide information on covered bridges that no longer exist from your state, or adopt a state to work on, we would certainly welcome your assistance. Please contact Trish Kane for more information.

Inventory Number: NY/32-53-03
County: Sullivan County
Township: Rockland
Town/Village: Livingston Manor
Bridge Name: Van Tran Flat or Livingston Manor or Sprague's
Crosses: Willowemoc Creek
Truss type: Town & Arch
Spans: 1
Length: 117'
Roadway Width:
Built: 1860
Builder: John Davidson
When Lost: standing
Cause:
Latitude: N41 54.890
Longitude: W074 49.913
See a map of the area
Topographic map of the area
Directions: 0.3 miles west of NY17 (exit 96) on CR81, then 1.0 miles right on old Rte 17 (CR179) and 0.2 miles left on Covered Bridge Rd. North of Livingston Manor.

Van Tran Flat or Livingston Manor Bridge, Rockland, Sullivan County, NY Built 1860
Trish Kane/Richard Donovan Collection

Van Tran Flat or Livingston Manor Bridge, Rockland, Sullivan County, NY Built 1860
Todd Clark Collection

Van Tran Flat or Livingston Manor Bridge, Rockland, Sullivan County, NY Built 1860
Bill & Jenn Caswell Photo, July 30, 2017

Van Tran Flat or Livingston Manor Bridge, Rockland, Sullivan County, NY Built 1860 (Note that card is mislabeled)
Theodore Burr Covered Bridge Resource Center Collection

Comments:
Town truss with Fanned Truss Planks. In 1984 large laminated arches were added to handle heavier traffic. Per the Local Record (Youngsville), January 1, 1869, "Mr 'Sheeley offered the following, and moved its adoption: Resolved, That the sum of two hundred and and fifty dollars be levied and assessed upon the county of Sullivan, and paid to the Commissioner of Highways of the town of Rockland to be applied on the building of a bridge over the Willowemock Creek, on the road leading from Liberty to the West field Flats [now Roscoe], near the house of Erastus Sprague in said town of Rockland." Erastus Sprague lived near this location at the time of the 1875 Sullivan County Atlas Map. Later an S. H. Sprague lived there. Per the Republican Watchman (Monticello), January 2, 1925, the old covered bridge at the Van Tran farm had been damaged by flooding the past September and was being repaired. It had been bypassed when the state road was built (SR17) whereas the covered bridge in Livingston Manor had been removed at that time.

Sources:
Republican Watchman (Monticello), January 2, 1925.
Local Record (Youngsville), January 1, 1869.
Wilson, Richard R.. New York State's Covered Bridges, 2004, pages 87-88
National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges. World Guide to Covered Bridges, 2021, page 58

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