Every State's Last Surviving Covered Bridge

Most states with covered bridges have a handful, sometimes dozens — Indiana alone has close to a hundred. But scattered across the country are states down to exactly one. In a few cases that single bridge is a genuine 19th-century survivor, saved by decades of restoration and civic pride. In most, it's something else entirely: a modern structure built decades or even a century after the covered bridge era had already ended elsewhere, in a state that never had the tradition to begin with. Both kinds of "last bridge standing" tell a real story. Here's every one of them.

The historic survivors

A small handful of one- or two-bridge states got there the hard way — losing dozens of genuine 19th-century covered bridges to fire, flood, and time, until only one or two authentic examples remained.

Minnesota — Zumbrota Covered Bridge (1869). Built the same year Minnesota's original crossing washed out in a flood, this Town lattice bridge was deliberately built to look like a barn, so nervous horses wouldn't spook crossing it. Relocated twice and partially collapsed under snow load in 2019, it's been fully restored and stands today in its own namesake city park — the state's last word on a tradition that never had many entries to begin with.

South Carolina — Campbell's Covered Bridge (1909). The last of four covered bridges once built within a few miles of each other in northern Greenville County, Campbell's Bridge turned a full-day, 25-mile round trip into an hour-long errand when it opened. Restored twice since, it's the only covered bridge left standing anywhere in South Carolina.

New Jersey — Green Sergeant's Covered Bridge (1872). New Jersey actually has two covered bridges, but only one is a genuine historic relic: Green Sergeant's, a Queen truss span that was torn down by the county in 1960 as obsolete — only for public outcry to force its reconstruction from salvaged original material soon after. It remains the last historic covered bridge in the state.

North Carolina — Bunker Hill (1895) and Pisgah (1911) Covered Bridges. North Carolina is down to exactly two, and both are genuinely remarkable: Bunker Hill is believed to be the only surviving covered bridge in the country built on a Haupt truss, a design from Civil War engineer Herman Haupt, while Pisgah — built for a mere $40 — sits quietly inside the Uwharrie National Forest.

The modern standouts

Far more states never had a real covered-bridge tradition at all — no historic wagon-crossing trusses, no 19th-century bridge-builders passing techniques down through generations. What they have instead is one modern, purpose-built covered bridge, often constructed decades after the form had already faded everywhere else, simply because a town, a rancher, or a park wanted one.

• Arizona — the Mauretta B. Thomas Pinedale Memorial Bridge (1976), built as the small town of Pinedale's U.S. Bicentennial project, remains the state's only drivable covered bridge.
• Arkansas — Burns Park Bridge (1972) in North Little Rock, a red stringer span that survived a 2023 tornado.
• Florida — the Coral Springs Covered Bridge (1964), built as a planned city's ceremonial gateway and now a designated Florida Heritage Site.
• Hawaii — the Liliʻuokalani Gardens Bridge (1917), a small ornamental red footbridge in the largest formal Japanese garden outside Japan.
• Idaho — the sparsely documented Boise County Covered Bridge (1990), a private structure on a secluded property.
• Kansas — Riverside Covered Bridge (2006) over an arm of the Walnut River in El Dorado, built decades after the state's one real historic bridge burned down in 1958.
• Louisiana — a 1978 stringer bridge at Camp Beauregard, built by Louisiana National Guard combat engineers as a training exercise.
• Mississippi — Mineral Springs Park Covered Bridge in Iuka, rebuilt in 1993 after flood damage, marketed as the state's only public covered bridge.
• Montana — down to two modern examples: the Kevin Mundy Memorial Bridge (2009) on a public trail near Bozeman, and a private 1980 span on a working canal.
• Nebraska — Cook Centennial Bridge (1988–89), built by volunteers from donated barn lumber to mark a village's 100th birthday.
• Nevada — the Bartley Ranch Bridge (1993), a cupola-topped span greeting visitors to a Reno regional park.
• Oklahoma — Crystal Bridge (1988), an acrylic-clad tropical conservatory spanning a pond at Oklahoma City's Myriad Botanical Gardens.
• South Dakota — the Edgemont City Park Covered Bridge (2011), built of Douglas fir to reconnect a historic park island, and the longest covered bridge anywhere on the northern Great Plains.
• Texas — Winnie's Covered Bridge (1992), a genuine Town lattice truss on a private East Texas ranch, and the only authentically truss-built covered bridge in the state.
• Utah — a small 2010 decorative bridge at the Benson Grist Mill, a restored 1850s pioneer flour mill near Tooele.

An honorable mention: Rhode Island

Rhode Island's Swamp Meadow Bridge (built 1993, rebuilt 1994 after arson) doesn't quite fit either category — it's modern, but it's also the only covered bridge in the state on a public road, which makes it something genuinely unusual: a brand-new bridge serving an old-fashioned civic function nobody else in the state provides.

And the four states with none at all

Not every state made this list, because not every state has a covered bridge left to feature. Alaska's seven historic covered bridges are all gone, and its only National Bridge Inventory entries are unnamed modern stringer spans. New Mexico, North Dakota, and Wyoming, meanwhile, appear to have never had a genuine covered bridge — historic or modern — at all. Between them, that's four states where this particular American tradition, for one reason or another, simply never took hold.