"spans only" is an acceptable phrase that can be used in written English
It typically means "is limited to." For example, you could say, "The study spans only a few months."
But in New York the action seemingly spans only months.
An appealing hodgepodge of boxy stucco buildings and palm-thatched cabanas, El Centro, or the town center, spans only five by six blocks.
The period in question spans only two decades, but the magnitude and diversity of European art from 1919 to 1939 would challenge even a major museum.
Though the action of The Accidental spans only a few months, Smith manages to render a sense of learning and linguistic faddishness in the girl.
The time-frame of his 1988 debut novel, The Mezzanine, spans only the time it takes for an office worker to ascend one floor on an escalator, having just bought a pair of shoelaces.
Cunningham's latest novel seems almost like a dare: can Auguste Rodin, Daisy Buchanan, Damien Hirst, Gustav von Aschenbach, and the rock band Styx all fit in a slim novel that spans only five days and unfolds almost entirely in Manhattan?
People who drive into or out of the town of San Luis Río Colorado, in the Mexican state of Sonora, sometimes complain about having to pay a six-peso toll to cross a bridge that spans only sand.
Both are sent frantically on the run, and both lose their jobs (a real Baltic Avenue move) during the course of these stories, each of which spans only a couple of action-packed days.
First time round it was Ian Bell, with Root and Ben Stokes the support act, and this time Gary Ballance came to the fore with the fourth hundred of a career that spans only nine Tests and can thus still be described as fledgling.
