Lake Creek Bridge

The Lake Creek Bridge, also known locally as the Nelson Mountain Bridge, crosses Lake Creek near the small community of Greenleaf in the rural hills west of Eugene. Built in 1928, the 105-foot Howe truss span is one of the older surviving covered bridges in Lane County's collection, predating the wave of Depression-era construction that produced many of the county's other spans. Its remote, wooded setting along Lake Creek Road places it well off the main tourist circuit, giving it a quieter, less-visited character compared to the county's more famous bridges near Cottage Grove and along the McKenzie River. Like most of Lane County's covered structures, the bridge uses weatherboard siding and a shingled gable roof to protect its wooden Howe truss from the region's heavy winter rains, a design choice that has kept many of the county's early twentieth-century bridges structurally sound for a century. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 29, 1979, the Lake Creek Bridge remains open to vehicle traffic and continues to serve the small rural community that surrounds it.