The Echoic

On the subject of Proposing a Bridge Project

The Bridge Cottage plan is a practical structure that connects two farm roads and allows access to fields and a workshop from the main road.  The idea to make the structure in the style of a Pennsylvania covered bridge using traditional crafts processes was really the biggest driving force behind it.  rather than laying down a simple bridge for the purpose of crossing the stream our goal is to cross over a wider girth, bypassing the riparian section of the stream and extending the footings of the bridge to allow for a 35 foot span over the creek bed.   Our initial excitement with this project was the chance to design and execute the construction of a covered wooden bridge using recycled dead white oaks trees.

Having milled some lumber for it and now gearing up to build it in July we made some changes to the original plan and added a little cottage on top of the existing design simply by extending the vertical elements up 8 feet and raising the original planned roof.  The result is very exciting.  This added element to the disign will be great to have in the final structure as a little guest room for visitors to the workshop.

The sound of running water running under the bridge room and a balcony on either side of the room.

Tradition Wood working and Joinery workshop will accompany the construction.

.

.

.

Our process will be to mill the rest of the lumber on sight from relative sustainable sources. Several of the oak and Hickory trees that have either died from moth infestation or were pushed over in the last several year’s ice storms.  There is quite a lot of clean up that can be done in most forests- good for firewood- but also, if the effort is made- good for lumber.  Most trees that fall over will be raised off the ground  by their own limbs and prevent from rotting over the years while it dries out.  So even coming across a tree fallen years earlier can worth it.  A little maintenance of these falling trees can ensure this. Removing the bark form the main trunk of the tree will prevent fungus from getting to the hardwood.  The hardest part in salvaging a dead trees,  is moving them out of their fallen position among other standing trees to get them to the portable slabbing mill.  A team of two horses is ideal for selective logging, but in most cases, patience and a good set of winches and some man power will do the trick.  The effort is worth it especially if the structure being erected is in the same area.

In the cases where forests have excessive amounts of fallen trees, there is quite a good business in hauling out some of the good ones (leaving some for habitat naturally) and freeing up the forest terrain.  It seems it would be both environmentally helpful and both sustainable for the immediate area and resource friendly to the larger business of lumbering for firewood and lumber markets.  With snow fall in early September, while leaves are still on the trees and many different sized healthy trees succumb to the weight of the snow pack .   Therefor it would be a good sustainable effort to care take the forest and remove  some of the nicer trees in the form of sustainable lumber.  Selective Cutting/ selective removal.

In the images you can see the surrounding forest is young- filled with mostly 70 year old trees which have grown up since the last clear cut over a century ago.  Some sections are so thick with small sapling and various forms of vegitation from having started growing wild from cleared fields.  The result is dense and semi stagnat forrests.  It is arguable that efforts to maintain young forests to help them grow by clearing underbrush and spacing trees out more naturally will speed up the process of bringing back original growth style forest–enhancing the abundance and diversity of animal wildlife.

Near the creek there is an ideal little spot to erect a structure on stilts. The purpose of a raised platform for the structure is to leave a minimal footprint in the ground. Originally I was going to pour 6 concrete tubes in the ground.  Upon digging the holes with my building partner Jeffrey Henry, it was clear that concrete would be too difficult in the wet conditions.  It had been raining for weeks and the ground water running down the mountain filled the holes and made working with cement forming tubes too much of a process.  Jeffrey suggested I use these old New Jersey Shore pier pilings from over a century ago that have been soaked in creosote (a type of soot/ byproduct heavily used in the past century and considered very toxic process).  These old pine logs are now objects of industrial waist and have no real use: they can not be burned or milled.  They still smelled of the seashore, that familiar smell of the board walk, tar in the hot sun- that smell is the creosote in the wooden planks and pilings.    We ultimately would be putting to use and recycling a material that is very hard to recycle.  Jeff knew of a local lumber jack who had a stack of over hundreds up to 25 feet long that he had dropped off near his mill many years ago after portions of the boardwalk were renovated and now they still sit there unchanged and are not going anywhere in any natural way.  We basically concluded that they are as strong as cement and will last as long if not longer than cement- and– they love sitting in water.

Recycled Creosote soaked pier pilings.

Will raise the Structure two feet off the ground.

A quick sketch by Reinhard. We talked about making the structure even more useful than our original plans of building just a bridge.

He raised the roof 8 feet and put a cottage over the bridge with a balcony on either side of a square room.  A little chimney and caboose stove and you have a year round living space.

A perfect place for a guest to crash and relax and meditate over the sound of running water.