Castle Valley (1835-1930)

Doylestown

Castle Valley covered bridge was located outside Doylestown. At 483 feet it was the longest Covered Bridge in the interior of Bucks County when it was demolished in 1930.

The name of the region came from one of Bucks County’s legendary figures, Thomas Meredith Jr. Known in stories from the 1700s as “Crazy Tom,” Meredith’s family purportedly was involved in business with Benjamin Franklin. According to lore, the young Meredith was sent to Bucks County along with his cousin James to recuperate from “over-much study.” Meredith devoted his life to building a stone castle on the Neshaminy Creek, which he never finished. The building’s remains were used for a dam and an early bridge.

When surveyed in April 1919, the county reported the bridge had been built in 1835 and ran over the Neshaminy Creek on Lower State Road, on the road leading from Doylestown to Eureka in Doylestown Township. It also had three spans.

Records show the county, and not the state, paid nearly $37,000 for a new concrete bridge in 1930, but turned that bridge over to the state in 1936.

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