Julie Bastarache's Covered Bridge

Julie Bastarache's Covered Bridge

Julie Bastarache and her father Gary built this beautiful
model of a covered bridge for one of Julie's school projects.
Julie's school is École Saint-Henri in Moncton.
She is 9 and is presently completing grade 4.
They used the plans that are posted on my Covered Bridge web page.

Follow UP on Julies Covered Bridge.
In December 2005 Julie donated her bridge to the Aquasouls Synchronized Swim Club of which both Julie and her older sister Erika are members. It was raffled at Turner's Christmas at the Coliseum, in which we raffle of two " Christmas basket" prizes, we ran a separate draw for the bridge.

A gentleman from Truro, NS, Danny Roode, won the bridge and planned at that time to use it in his backyard model railroad.

The following text is in Gary's words and the pictures
following are his work also.

This little bridge was built at a scale of 3/4" = 1'-0" (or 1:16). The structural lumber and floor decking were ripped from my neighbour's discarded 3" x 3/8" mahogany baseboard. The profile of the baseboard was perfect for the scale providing nominal lumber sizes of 6x6, 6x8, 6x10, 5x8, and 4x10. The Hackmatack angle block were cut from a piece of 1x2 Fir that I found in the baby barn. Spruce strapping, decking and orange crate boards were ripped to about 3/32" for the various widths of roof and wall sheathing. The shingles are made of strips of heavy brown wrapping paper. The signage was drawn with MS-Paint, printed and glued to little boards. One side of the bridge is removable to allow for closer inspection of the structure. The only significant expense we had was for the purchase of the 3/32" stainless steel threaded rod, nuts, washers, bolts and a bottle of wood glue, approximately 30 bucks.

We had a fantastic time doing this project. I lost track of the time but I figure it took approximately 100 enjoyable hours.

I want to thank you and Mr. Ron Joyce from the New Brunswick of Transportion for providing the plans that were posted on your web site. Without the drawings, the authenticity of this bridge would have been much more difficult. The only variance from the drawings is that our bridge has only four 12 foot sections instead of five and as a result, the lateral bracing for the end portal truss members is not exactly as called for on the drawings. In real life, our bridge would be 51' long at the base and 53' long at the eaves. I think the slight cant of the end portal walls gives these bridges their distinctive look.