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Kidd's Mill, Mercer 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: PA/38-43-01
County: Mercer County
Township: Pymatuning
Town/Village:
Bridge Name: Kidd's Mill
Crosses: Shenango River
Truss type: Smith Double
Spans: 1
Length: 122', 118'-6" span
Roadway Width: 15'
Built: 1868
Builder: Smith Bridge Company ?
When Lost: standing
Cause:
Latitude: N41 21.214
Longitude: W080 23.874
See a map of the area
Topographic map of the area
Directions: 0.6 miles from PA18 in Reynolds on Reynolds Industrial Park Rd. (SR4012) and 0.2 miles right on Kidds Mill Rd (SR471). South of Shenango.

Kidd's Mill Bridge, Pymatuning, Mercer County, PA. Built 1868
Richard Donovan / Trish Kane Collection

Kidd's Mill Bridge, Pymatuning, Mercer County, PA. Built 1868
© Lisa Plamondon

Local medal from 1976 showing Kidd's Mill Bridge, Pymatuning, Mercer County, PA. Built 1868
Bill Caswell Collection

Comments:
Closed. This is the only Smith truss covered bridge in Pennsylvania, designed by Robert Smith of Tippecanoe, Ohio. The road and crossing were established sometime between 1848 and 1860, when they appear on G.M. Hopkins' "Map of Mercer County, Pennsylvania". No documentation has been found concerning the first bridge at this location, except that it was repaired in 1859. In 1867 a flood destroyed the bridge at Kidd's Mill. The present covered bridge was reportedly built the following year. Kidd's Mill Bridge continued to carry traffic until 1979, when an overloaded vehicle fractured several truss members and rendered the bridge unsafe. In 1989, Mercer County leased the bridge for ninety-nine years to the Shenango Conservancy, a local non-profit organization. In 1990, the Conservancy rehabilitated the structure and currently maintains it as an historic landmark and tourist attraction. (HABS-HAER) It is located in Pymatuning Township, oriented northeast to southwest on an approximate 2/3 mile jug handle of what is now called Reynolds Industrial Park Road (SR4012 - LR43120). The jug handle is called West Kidd's Mill Road (T471), which was the original name for the entire road in that area when the bridge was still in use. In Penn Pilot aerial photography dated to May 17, 1939, the covered bridge is still the main crossing point, but in a Penn Pilot photo dated to September 8, 1968, it had already been bypassed. It is about 250' upstream (southeast) from the new bridge.

Sources:
Evans, Benjamin D. & June R.. Pennsylvania's Covered Bridges, 2001, page 203
Moll, Fred J.. Pennsylvania's Covered Bridges - Our Heritage, 2004, page 21, 116-117
Kipphorn, Thomas. Information received by email, June 2008
Kipphorn, Thomas. Information received by email, May 2008
National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges. World Guide to Covered Bridges, 2021, page 122

Compilation 2026 Covered Spans of Yesteryear

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