Chitwood Bridge

The Chitwood Bridge carries traffic over the Yaquina River in the tiny community of Chitwood, named for Joshua Chitwood, who lived nearby during construction of the Corvallis-to-Toledo railway between 1881 and 1885. The 96-foot Howe truss span sits beside that same rail line, which trains still use today even though they no longer stop in Chitwood. Built in 1926, the bridge is architecturally distinguished by its semi-elliptical portal arches, cedar-shingle roof, and flared batten sidewalls, design flourishes shared with several other Lincoln County bridges built by the same era of county crews. By the early 1980s the aging structure was slated for demolition, but a federally funded restoration project in 1984 saved and rehabilitated it instead, preserving one of only two Lincoln County covered bridges still open to vehicular traffic today, the other being the North Fork Yachats Bridge. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 29, 1979, the Chitwood Bridge remains open to traffic with an eight-ton weight limit, a quiet but well-preserved link to the county's early rail and timber-era transportation history.