1-11-2026 11:00pm

Covered Bridges — Preserving A Bit Of History

Beth Callahan Editor

Nature Close to Home and Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalist Dave Woehr shares monthly naturalist stories.

WARREN COUNTY, OH -- Bridges. We take them for granted. We drive over them every day without thinking about what critical components of our infrastructure they are. We tend to give little recognition to our civil engineers, who devote their lives to designing safe long-lasting bridges sometimes with a flair of aesthetic attractiveness.

Bridge design is a science that involves consideration of many interrelated technical factors, including; material selection, structural life, stress and load analysis, wear and tear, corrosion – even resilience to extreme wind and water conditions.

I got to thinking about bridges on a recent winter day while browsing through the thousands of photos (some of which were of bridges) I’ve stored on my hard drive. And, of those bridge photos I’ve saved, the majority seem to be covered bridges. They are a strikingly different style than the steel and concrete (often low-profile) bridges built today.

Covered bridges were the first bridges to be built at the time Ohio was being settled in the early 1800’s. The virgin forest being cleared provided the lumber that could be milled into the large beams strong enough to support the road traffic of that era. But if the wooden structures were left exposed to the elements, the strength of the bridge would decline rapidly. So, the historic wooden bridges of Ohio’s early days were roofed and sided to protect them from the weather and to extend their lifespans.

The first covered bridge in Ohio was built in 1809 in Washington County. At one time there were around 3,500 covered bridges in the state. Sadly, we have lost most of them now and only around 125 remain.

There are perhaps a couple dozen of them in southwest Ohio within a short driving distance of Warren County, if you want to go exploring and see them for yourself. Unfortunately, we have had a couple of them damaged in recent times by vehicles too large to pass through them.

Others have succumbed to floods. It takes time and money to repair or replace them, if it can be done at all. And, perhaps, the main reason to save them is to preserve a bit of history and a sense of nostalgia.