Read our latest blog posts on covered bridges in the U.S
Theodore Burr invented the arch truss that carries more than half of Pennsylvania's surviving covered bridges, then died penniless in an unmarked grave in 1822. The story of his patent, his record 360-foot McCall's Ferry span, and the bridges that outlasted him.
Lane County, Oregon holds more covered bridges than anywhere west of the Mississippi — most of them built in the 1920s–40s for logging trucks, from the Chambers Railroad Bridge to Westfir's 180-foot Office Bridge.
The Bridgeport Covered Bridge in Nevada County, California — built in 1862 for a Gold Rush toll road — holds the longest clear single span of any surviving wooden covered bridge in the world, and reopened in 2021 after a $6.9 million restoration.
The six real covered bridges behind Robert James Waller's 60-million-copy novel — including the Roseman's ghost story and the Cedar Bridge, burned by arsonists twice and rebuilt twice.
Where to see America's covered bridges at their fall best, region by region — from New Hampshire's Cornish-Windsor Bridge to Indiana's Covered Bridge Festival in Parke County.
Most surviving covered bridges are pedestrian relics now, but roughly 250 across 18 states still carry real vehicle traffic — from Ohio's 613-foot Smolen-Gulf Bridge to a 200-year-old Pennsylvania span.
From Minnesota's 1869 Zumbrota Bridge to Arizona's 1976 Pinedale span, these are the lone covered bridges keeping the tradition alive in 16 different American states.
From Ohio's record-holding Smolen-Gulf Bridge to Indiana's historic Medora Bridge, here are the longest surviving covered bridges still standing across the United States.
The Sachs Covered Bridge near Gettysburg carried Union and Confederate troops in 1863, survived a 1996 flood, and still stands as Adams County's most storied Town lattice truss crossing.
The history of America's covered bridges — why builders enclosed wooden trusses, how the design spread from Philadelphia's 1805 Permanent Bridge, and why so few remain today.
