About
Hughes Covered Bridge crosses Tenmile Creek in Amwell Township, Washington County, near the Marianna exit of Interstate 79 south of Washington. It stands in a small field on the east side of Montgomery Run Road and is no longer part of a through road.
History
Amwell Township built the bridge in 1889; the builder is unknown. It may have replaced an earlier crossing or reused materials from a bridge washed away in the floods of 1888, and an 1878 map shows a bridge near the Hughes family's sawmills. Washington County took over maintenance in 1915. In January 1971 the county began dismantling the bridge to move it to Mingo Creek Park. Amwell Township sued, and a judge ruled for the township and ordered the bridge restored, so it remains at its original site. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 22, 1979.
Design
Hughes is a queenpost truss bridge about 55 feet 6 inches long and 12 feet 4 inches wide.
Visiting
The bridge is open only to foot traffic. It is hidden by trees for much of the year and has no parking beside the road; visitors have parked beside a gated dirt road about 500 feet south without blocking the gate.
Sources: Hughes Covered Bridge, coveredbridges.net, Hughes Covered Bridge 38-63-17, dalejtravis.com, Washington County covered bridges, Uncovering PA
Photo: Jerrye and Roy Klotz, MD, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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