Ask people where Pennsylvania keeps its covered bridges and most will say Lancaster County. Fair enough, but head southwest of Pittsburgh and you reach a county that quietly rivals it. Washington County's tourism office counts 23 covered bridges, and all of them are on our map now. They are small, mostly on back roads, and nearly every one went onto the National Register of Historic Places on the same day, June 22, 1979, as part of a single listing for the covered bridges of Washington and Greene counties.
Don't come expecting Burr arches stretching across a river. These are farm-road bridges, most between 24 and 45 feet, built on simple kingpost and queenpost trusses by township crews and local carpenters. That modesty is the appeal. You can see five of them in an afternoon and still be home for dinner.
Start in Mingo Creek County Park
The easiest pair sits inside Mingo Creek County Park in Nottingham Township. The Henry Covered Bridge dates to about 1881 and still carries cars over Mingo Creek beside Mansion Hill Road, under a posted 2-ton limit and with five steel beams added under the deck. About a mile upstream is the Ebenezer Covered Bridge, a 32-foot queenpost the county bought for one dollar and moved into the park in 1977. Nobody knows when it was first built, which is a recurring theme in this county.
Photo: Jerrye and Roy Klotz, MD, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Wheeling Creek country
The densest cluster is out west, in the hills drained by the forks of Wheeling Creek near the West Virginia line. The Erskine Covered Bridge in West Finley Township was built in 1845 by William Gordon, the oldest firm date of the lot, and it stands about a tenth of a mile from West Virginia. Nearby, the Longdon Covered Bridge runs 67 feet over the Templeton Fork, its deck resting on four wooden trestles. On the Robinson Fork, the Crawford and Danley bridges are both 39-foot queenposts, both restored in the late 1990s.
East Finley Township adds a small puzzle. The Sprowls Covered Bridge of 1875 is a 36-foot kingpost on Rocky Run, closed in 2000 for repairs after mining-related damage twisted its truss. The Wyit Sprowls Covered Bridge is a different bridge entirely, moved into the township park from West Finley, and sources can't agree whether it dates from 1865 or 1915. The tiny Plants Covered Bridge, 24.5 feet, is several miles of dirt road from anything, and the Mays Covered Bridge sits on gravel Waynesburg Road south of West Alexander.
Tenmile Creek and a courtroom win
Down in Amwell Township, the Hughes Covered Bridge has the best story in the county. In January 1971 the county started taking it apart to move it to Mingo Creek Park. Amwell Township sued, won, and a judge ordered the bridge put back. It still stands in a field off Montgomery Run Road, foot traffic only. About a mile and a quarter upstream, the Bailey Covered Bridge is the county's lone Burr arch, though what you see is a rebuild: the 1889 original burned in 1994 and was replaced in 1999.
Photo: Jerrye and Roy Klotz, MD, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The ones that moved
Several bridges survived by relocating. The Brownlee Covered Bridge was moved in 2008 to McGuffey Community Park. The 24-foot McClurg Covered Bridge, nicknamed Devil's Den for a cave behind a waterfall near its first site, went to Hanover Township Park in 1987. And the Pine Bank Covered Bridge isn't even local: it came from Toms Run in Greene County in 1962 and now crosses a ravine at Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village, where admission is charged. All three are walk-only.
The rest of the set
Northern Hanover Township has the Jackson's Mill bridge over Kings Creek and the 1887 Lyle Covered Bridge at the edge of Hillman State Park, both listed as open to traffic. The Ralston Freeman Covered Bridge stands on private property at the end of Ralston Road, so admire it from the road or not at all. The Krepps Covered Bridge over Raccoon Creek is 24 feet with a 3-ton limit.
Farther south and east you'll find the Wright and Leatherman bridges on the branches of Pigeon Creek, the Day Covered Bridge, which reopened in 2003 after four years of repairs, and the 1915 Sawhill Covered Bridge over Buffalo Creek, rebuilt from the foundation up after the remnants of Hurricane Ivan hit it in 2004.
Photo: Brian M. Powell, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Before you go
Most of these bridges are on narrow township roads, many unpaved, and several carry weight limits of 2 to 15 tons, so leave the RV at home. Check each listing for current access, since a few are walk-only and one is private. If you'd rather see them with a crowd, the EQT Washington and Greene Counties' Covered Bridge Festival is held the third weekend of September each year, with events at nine bridge sites across the two counties.
Cover photo: Erskine Covered Bridge by Stuart Haller, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Sources: Visit Washington County PA: Covered Bridge Festival, Wikipedia: List of covered bridges in Pennsylvania, and the sources cited on each bridge's listing.