After my presentation, I met many folks and one of those folks was Randy Teel of RNJ Plaques & Engravings, who had a story about Pine Grove bridge from 1973.
He told me, that he and a friend were driving home, and as they approached the bridge, they noticed some flames inside the bridge, and as they got closer, it was burning oil rags.
Because there were no cell phones, they had no way to quickly contact any additional help, but were able to use the available 10 gal “Indian” water tanks to put out the fire, then driving on to find a phone to report the incident to the police.
Randy and his friend, continued to drive home, and found another small fire on Bell Bank Bridge, and were able to put this fire out, but decided not to report it, because it might not look very good.
On the way to Mercer, I tried to find another small private bridge that I had read about, but after driving by the reported location, I could not find it and continued on.
I was easily able to find Creek Road, and continued through the park until the road split. Bearing left on Bailey Crossroads Road, I finally came upon Mercer covered bridge, which was built in 1860.
There was parking lot for the shots that I was planning I had to drive through the bridge and parked on the corner of Walter Road.
I grabbed my gear and headed back towards the bridge. Unfortunately the sun was shining directly into my face as I approached the entrance. There was just going to be too much lens flare for me to take a decent picture so I continued through the bridge and found my first acceptable location.
I took two different scenes, one from the road as if you were in the car, and the second on left side of the bridge, just below the road grade looking up.
While setting up for the second shot, I kept on being poked by thorns as I moved the tripod around trying to get a good frame on the bridge. Just one of the minor hazards, of working with nature.
After the second shot was complete, I moved back up the bank, across the road, and down the other side, but this time little more into the woods.
Mercer Covered Bridge HDR 03 (Reflections)
It was from this viewpoint, that I saw my shot of the day.
One of the great things about doing picture in HDR, is that water becomes “glass-like” because of the long exposures and multiple shots.
Finishing these HDR captures, I moved back to the road and through the bridge, down another small bank and was finally able to get to a suitable location from underneath the bridge.
From this vantage point it was easy to capture the geometric shapes of the wood beams, and in the background you can also see the location of the three previous shots.
Mercer Covered Bridge HDR 04 (Underneath)
Once I was done with this capture, I looked at my watch and new I had to pack up and start heading home.
I was very thankful that I had the GPS, because I really had no clue where I was.
It was a very pleasant drive home the temperature had dropped a little and felt good as I drove with all the car windows down and my music blaring.
Driving south of Coatesville on Route 82, was definitely one of those days where you had the windows down and the stereo cranked up.
Initially I wanted to find Speakman #2 (Mary Ann Pyle CB), but when I got to the end of Highland Dairy Road, I encountered a local resident and asked about the bridge. He informed me that the bridge had been damaged in the recent storms back in June. He had not been there, but he had heard that the bridge had washed away.
I turned around and continued south on Route 82, which only took me deeper into the horse country of Chester County.
It was easy finding DuPont road which led to frog Hollow Road and I parked at the intersection.
This Burr bridge was built in 1881 by Menander & Ferdinand Wood, and is located in a very quiet and secluded area where one could only hear water running of the stream.
Unpacking my tripod and camera gear, I set out to do some interior shots of the bridge from the road.
There was some graffiti scrolled onto the dark walls of the interior which added some color.
Speakman #1 Bridge HDR 05 (Full View)
I look for position where I could go full-sized shot of the bridge, but the weeds were very thick, and I decided to cross the bridge to the other side.
once on the other side, I found an easy path walking upstream, and was quickly able to find a dried area where I could set up to do my full-length shot.
It was a nice relief walking through the cool stream water because it was such a hot and humid day.
After taking my full-length shots, I started looking around at the beautiful scenery, and just swiveled the tripod head 180°, looking back up the stream, capturing the following image.
Speakman #1 Bridge (Looking Up Creek)
I spent a few more minutes letting my eyes take in the beauty, as I splashed cold water onto my head and neck helping to cool me off.
reluctantly I started back downstream and got to the edge of the bridge, where I set up to do my final detailed interior capture.
Here is another example, where I did not notice the lens flare on the cameras LCD screen, but did notice it when I was editing the images and Adobe Lightroom.
Speakman #1 Bridge HDR 03
I crossed back over the bridge, put my gear into the car, selected my next bridge from the GPS, and headed off to Mercer Covered Bridge in Christiana.
