Bennett's Mill Covered Bridge

Bennett's Mill Covered Bridge was built in 1855 by brothers Benjamin Franklin and Parmaly Bennett, both master carpenters, to carry a road over Tygarts Creek near the grist and sawmill they operated after damming the creek. The original beams were sawn from native hemlock at their own mill, and the stone piers came from the nearby Globe Furnace the Bennetts had run before turning to milling. At 195 feet, it remains the longest single-span covered bridge standing in Kentucky, and it's the only surviving example anywhere in the country of a Wheeler truss — a rare 19th-century design that has otherwise vanished entirely.

The bridge saw more than lumber traffic in its time. During the Civil War it was defended by two hidden cannon, a detail that survives in local memory even though no battle was ever fought there. It carried travelers and farm wagons for a century and a half with only routine upkeep, until inspectors discovered in 2002 that it was resting on rotting foundations. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet undertook a full reconstruction in 2004 at a cost of about a million dollars — the deterioration was severe enough that only about 15% of the original timber could be reused, with the rest replaced by new spruce beams from Oregon, though the bridge retains its historic Wheeler truss form.

Bennett's Mill was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and is maintained today by Greenup County, carrying Brown Covered Bridge Road over Tygarts Creek west of Greenup.