NEWTON FALLS — With the recent opening of the Newton Falls covered bridge, a special display of covered bridge items and models are being shown at the public library’s history room.

The original covered bridge was erected in the 1831 with many parts and pieces of the bridge including dowels, nails, sides and trusses being showcased. There are also photos and pictures of the bridge.

Assistant library director Carol Baker said the covered bridge artifacts can be viewed along with historical pictures and paintings of the bridge.

Baker said resident George W. Quiggle created several miniatures of the bridge including those that Quiggle measured to exact scale.

Quiggle, a native of Quiggle’s Corners in Mecca, lives in Newton Falls with his wife, Jane. He is retired from Trumbull Memorial Hospital.

Quiggle’s friend, Ernie Clutter, encouraged him to begin building models of bridges. He and his late wife, Eva, traveled all over measuring bridges when he began in the late 1990s.

One of the models on display in the history room is the wooden covered bridge completed March 10, 1993. It follows the 1921 pattern of the bridge when the crosswalk was added for the school children walking to Arlington School.

For Quiggle to get the exact measurements he begins by going to the actual site of the bridge and measuring the beams and distance in order to convert it to the exact scales he has to use. He has stood in the river to do his measuring, Baker said.

Baker said Quiggle said the bridge project was very time consuming to construct since it had so many details and in fact was the roughest one for him to make out of the 90 or more scale models he has made since he began.

The bridge is made from balsa wood because it is easier to use. It took him 367 hours to complete and is to scale of 30 thousandth of an inch. He also has the copyrights to the plans for the bridge.

Quiggle has also done miniatures and replicas of other area bridges including one in Mill Creek Park.

After more than two years of repairs to the bridge on Arlington Street, the city was finally able to re-dedicate the bridge in December. The bridge is on the national register of historic places and engineers said the repairs were paid through a federal grant.

The bridge, which is the oldest in the state still in service, faced heavy damage from the weather, a 1985 tornado and heavy vehicles crossing it. The bridge had to be stripped out plank by plank.

The bridge was restored to look the way it did in the 1940s.

The display will be up through January. The history room is located in the second floor of the library. It is open from noon to 8 p.m. Monday to Wednesday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. the first Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. the first Sunday of each month.

For more information on the bridge visit www.newtonfalls.org

By BOB COUPLAND Tribune Chronicle