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Warburton Mill Covered Bridge

COUNTY WORLD GUIDE # CROSSES TRUSS SPANS LENGTH BUILT GONE
Cecil MD-07-21x Little Northeast Creek Queenpost 1 42' 1866 1898
On July 10, 1866 James T. Simpson wrote a letter to the Cecil County Commissioners providing a bid to "build the bridge over the Little Northeast Creek, at William T. Warburton Saw Mill for the sum of sixteen hundred and ninety-five dollars ($1,695) agreeable to the conditions laid down in your advertisement." On July 11, 1866 the Commissioners awarded the contract to James Simpson.
Warburton Saw Mill Covered Bridge specifications called for a 42' span of Queenpost design with narrow white oak boards for the flooring and the roof to be of pine or cypress shingles projecting six feet over the face of the abutments. The bridge was required to be completed by October 15, 1866.
Warburton's Bridge managed to survive the floods of 1884 and 1887 but did not make it through the 1898 flood. The Cecil Whig and Cecil Democrat both reported on the loss of the bridge caused by the May 26, 1898 flood. From the Cecil Democrat on May 27, 1898:

Havoc on the Little North East

On the Little Northeast Creek the flood was equally great. That stream does not turn many mills and consequently there were no dams to break. But without that there was great destruction. Five important county bridges were swept away. The iron bridge at Janney's; the covered bridge at Warburton's; the iron bridge at McVey's; the iron bridge at Mechanics Valley and the iron bridge at Mearns'.
An article appeared in the Cecil Democrat on June 4th saying Warburton's Bridge will be replaced by an iron bridge. From the Cecil Whig on June 4th: "The commissioners are now advertising for proposals for the rebuilding of the Warburton, Mearns, Harvey and Elk Landing bridges. The structures will be of iron."

UPDATED: 06/28/2010, for information about the loss of the bridge in the 1898 flood.


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