WHITE PINE. 45 



bridges, and in some notable instances it has been the chief or sole 

 material of large bridges. It was used in the early structures span- 

 ning the Schuylkill River at Philadelphia, and the timbers in one 

 of them were found in good condition after 37 years. The Delaware 

 River at Trenton was likewise bridged with white pine, and it formed 

 a large part of a bridge connecting Boston with Cambridge. The 

 aqueduct over the Allegheny River at Pittsburg, by which the State 

 canal crossed the stream, was built of white pine. It was 16 feet wide 

 and 1,020 feet long, with 7 spans. 



Many of the bridges in the interior of Pennsylvania and In West 

 Virginia, by which the old pikes crossed the numerous streams, were 

 built of white pine, and it was said of some of them that no man had 

 lived long enough to witness their building and their failure through 

 decay. Some of these structures were marvels in efficiency. Extra 

 large timbers were unnecessary, and though slight in appearance, 

 they carried every load that came during periods often exceeding half 

 a century. They were roofed usually with white pine shingles 

 and were weatherboarded with white pine or yellow poplar, and 

 though painted only once or twice in a generation they stood almost 

 immune from decay. 



HOUSES. 



An estimate made at the beginning of the nineteenth century by a 

 traveler who had visited all the eastern portions of the United 

 States was that 500,000 houses, exclusive of those in cities, were built 

 of white pine. 1 He said that three out of four of the buildings of 

 Pittsburg, Wheeling, and other towns on the Ohio River were wholly 

 or largely of that wood. It was the material of rough construction 

 and of inside and outside finish. It was sometimes stained to imitate 

 cherry and mahogany, but was generally left in its natural color, with 

 only a finish of oil, or with none. All through New England and 

 New York it was a common building material while it was abundant. 

 The finest residences and the humblest cottages employed it. It was 

 manufactured into thin shingles and into the heaviest beams for 

 churches and other large structures. When window sash was manu- 

 factured by hand no wood was better than the clear, soft, white pine. 

 The carpenter could do more with it, and with less effort, than with 

 any other wood. Many old houses of New England that were built 

 before the Revolutionary War exhibit the excellent service white pine 

 will give as interior finish. The Hancock House at Lexington, Mass., 

 has panel work that was old when the opening battle of the Revolution 

 was fought there. Some of the wood was finished in imitation of 

 mahogany, and occasionally it is mistaken for that wood by visitors 



*A. F. Michaux. 



