American Covered Bridges American Covered Bridges
Spangler Bridge

Spangler Bridge

Gila National Forest, about 4 miles north of Pinos Altos, Grant County. Built 1981, roofed concrete-slab span over a small forest brook — New Mexico never developed a historic wooden covered bridge tradition.

1981
Year Built
New Mexico
New Mexico
Grant County
Pinos Altos vicinity (Gila National Forest)
1981
32.891183,-108.231617
Standing, on National Forest land
Brook near Mill Creek
Concrete slab (roofed)
24

New Mexico has no surviving 19th-century covered bridges, and the state's rare covered spans are all modest 20th-century structures rather than remnants of an older tradition. The Spangler Bridge, tucked into the Gila National Forest a few miles north of Pinos Altos in Grant County, is one of the best documented.

Built in 1981, the small roofed span uses a concrete-slab deck rather than a wooden truss, crossing a brook near Mill Creek along SR15 north of Silver City. It's a modest, largely utilitarian structure, but its roof and siding give it the classic covered-bridge silhouette in a state where that form is otherwise almost entirely absent.

Set within national forest land, the bridge is accessible to visitors exploring the Gila's back roads, standing as New Mexico's most identifiable example of the covered bridge form.