Cook Centennial Bridge

Cook Centennial Bridge came about almost by accident of leftover budget: in 1988, the village of Cook in Johnson County had funds remaining from its centennial celebration, and at a community meeting to decide what to do with the money, resident Duane Carman suggested building a covered bridge. A town committee checked with the Nebraska State Historical Society first and learned that, unlike neighboring Iowa, Nebraska had never actually had a historic covered bridge tradition of its own — meaning whatever Cook built would essentially be establishing a new local landmark from scratch, not restoring an old one.

The committee patterned the design after a bridge in Vermont, adding overhangs and a walkway inspired by a New York example, with actual construction plans drawn up by Michael Carman, Duane's son, who was studying architecture at Southeast Community College in Milford. Five area families donated old barns and houses specifically to supply lumber for the project, and volunteers did the work of tearing down those structures, pulling nails, and sorting salvaged wood — roughly 2,000 hours of labor that kept the entire build to just $5,000. The finished 42-foot bridge, 20 feet wide with an 18-ton capacity, was dedicated as Centennial Bridge on October 1, 1989, with a horse-drawn carriage given the honor of being the first vehicle across — a fitting nod to the era the bridge was built to evoke, even though Nebraska had never actually had one like it before.