Locust Creek Covered Bridge

Locust Creek Covered Bridge, sometimes called the Linn County Bridge, is the longest of Missouri's four surviving covered bridges at 151 feet. It was built in 1868 after Linn County Commissioners awarded a contract to the firm of Bishop & Eaton, capping the cost at $5,500. The Howe truss structure, framed in white pine with vertical iron rods cinching its diagonal beams tight, was built to carry wagon, horse, and pedestrian traffic across Locust Creek about three miles east of Meadville.

The bridge's biggest claim to fame came in the early 20th century, when it was folded into Route 8 — laid out shortly before World War I as part of America's first transcontinental road — carrying automobile traffic until it was bypassed by U.S. Route 36 in 1930. It was also a popular local swimming and fishing hole, well used by a young John J. Pershing, whose boyhood home and namesake state park sit nearby; generations of visitors carved initials and declarations of love into its interior walls. After World War II, the course of Locust Creek itself shifted, leaving the bridge spanning a dry, silt-filled channel — which is why the bridge crosses no visible water today. The State of Missouri took possession in 1968, repairing the roof, sheeting, and flooring, and in 1991 the Missouri Department of Conservation raised the entire structure six feet to protect its timbers from the marshy ground below.