Thick smoke blackened the sky here on Sunday, June 28, 1863, as the world's longest covered bridge burned to prevent Confederates from crossing the Susquehanna River into Lancaster County during the Gettysburg Campaign. In six hours, flames consumed the majestic span, leaving only 20 piers in the river. Gen. John B. Gordon led 1,800 Georgia infantrymen, accompanied by cavalry and a four-gun battery of Virginia artillery, to Wrightsville after occupying York. Opposing them was a motley force of 1,500 emergency militia and home guard, including more than 50 free Black men who worked in a Columbia rolling mill. They delayed Gordon's advance, then retreated across the bridge. Attempts to destroy a section of the span with charges of gunpowder failed, and civilians then set fire to the bridge. The next morning, Gordon reluctantly withdrew to York. The sturdy toll bridge, more than a mile-and-a-quarter long, was the second at this site and was built in the 1830s. Settlers headed west on this crossing, while Black freedom seekers went east on the span following the Underground Railroad into Lancaster County. The bridge was not rebuilt until after the war, and a severe windstorm wrecked the replacement crossing in 1896.
