Chambers Railroad Covered Bridge

Built in 1925 by lumberman J.H. Chambers, this Howe truss span carried a logging railroad hauling timber from the Lorane Valley to the Chambers Mill in Cottage Grove, spanning the Coast Fork Willamette River. It is the only remaining fully covered railroad bridge west of the Mississippi River, and one of just a handful ever built in the country. The mill burned in the early 1950s, rail traffic ceased, tracks were pulled up and sold for scrap in 1951, and the abandoned bridge slowly deteriorated and suffered vandalism over the following decades while in private ownership. The City of Cottage Grove secured full ownership in December 2006 and, backed by a $1,315,370 federal National Historic Covered Bridge Preservation Program grant plus Recovery Act and state transportation funds, undertook a careful top-down disassembly and rebuild. Crews reused original chords, decking, and corbels wherever timbers were sound, replacing only what had rotted beyond repair, and the reconstructed bridge, essentially identical to the original, reopened in November 2011. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979, the bridge no longer carries rail traffic; it now serves only pedestrians and cyclists as a landmark on Cottage Grove's covered bridge tour, standing near its scaled-down sibling, the Centennial Bridge.