Covered Bridges of Ashtabula County, Part Two

Covered bridges are big in Ashtabula County, Ohio, both in the figurative and literal sense of the word "big".

I wrote about the biggest covered bridge in Ashtabula last week in part one of this series, when I shared the story of the Smolen-Gulf covered bridge. The Smolen-Gulf span is the longest covered bridge in the nation, and Ashtabula County's collection of 17 vintage and new covered bridges is one of the largest concentrations of such spans in Ohio and in the country.

I'll share pictures and stories about the rest of the county's covered bridges over coming weeks as the county readies for its annual Covered Bridge Festival in October.

Let's get started with the bridge tour!

• Netcher Road Bridge

  The Netcher Road Bridge in Jefferson Township is one of the county's newer covered bridges, built in 1999 in a "Neo Victorian" style. This 110-foot-long span over Mill Creek features a truss system inspired by engineer Herman Haupt's late-1830s design with a massive double laminated arch bolted to a lattice configuration of lighter timbers.

  
  
  
  
  



• South Denmark Road Bridge

  The 81-foot-long South Denmark Road Bridge in Pierpont Township also spans Mill Creek. Built in 1890, the simple white bridge features Town Lattice construction patented by architect Ithiel Town in 1820 and 1835.Town's lattice system construction uses lighter timbers than the large squared beams used in other bridge construction at the time, saving costs by allowing the use of unskilled labor to work with the more easily moved boards. This bridge sits side-by-side with a more modern iron bridge spanning the creek on a bypass constructed in 1975, although you can turn off of the main road and cross the creek on the old wooden span, too.

  
  
  



• Caine Road Bridge

  The Caine Road Bridge is a 124-foot-long span built in 1986 for Ashtabula County's 175th anniversary. The bridge crosses the Ashtabula River in Pierpont Township and was the first of only a handful of covered bridges in the state featuring a Pratt Truss design. The Smolen-Gulf Bridge also features a Pratt design, a construction capable of handling the heavier loads of modern traffic.

  The Caine Bridge takes its name from the Caine family. Thomas and Margaret Caine came to Ohio from Ireland in the late 1830s and established a farm. The couple is buried in the nearby Evergreen Cemetery with four of their seven children.

  
  
  



• Graham Road Bridge

  The Graham Road Bridge is one of the few covered bridges in the county closed to vehicular traffic. The 97-foot-long Town Truss span originally spanned the Ashtabula River in Pierpont, but moved to a County Metropark in Pierpont Township in 1971. As you can see from my photo, it makes a nice stop for a picnic. This bridge's history predates its 1913 construction, as it features the remnants of an earlier (1867) bridge washed downstream in a major flood during 1913.

  
  
  
  

Note: There is some disagreement among sources for some bridge lengths and/or constructions dates. In those cases, I went with the lengths and dates from the covered bridge festival site.

Be sure to check back here next week for another in my series of posts about the Covered Bridges of Ashtabula County!

Want to learn more about covered bridges in Ohio?

Check out Ohio's Covered Bridges (Postcard History) by Elma Lee Moore. This book contains many images of historic bridges in the state, and includes a photo of the original Graham Road Bridge spanning the Ashtabula River.

Want to tour the county's covered bridges by bicycle? Check out Ride Guide: Covered Bridges of Ohio by Kurt Leib and Steve Butterman. This book details trips for bicyclists that visit 37 of Ohio's covered bridges, including a trip through the eastern leg of the Ashtabula County bridge tour.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

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Comments

[David W. Yost]

My Name Is David And I love Covered Bridges
i've Been Photographing them For 8-9 years
learned how to locate them what the "numbers " mean and even how to find them by countys, would like to know where i can get a more indepth history online. thanks and keep shooting enjoyed yhe shots

[Dominique King]

David-Thanks for stopping by!
We traveled to Ashtabula with the specific goal in mind of shooting photos of all of the bridges.
I really struggled to get much info online about some of the bridges...there just isn't a lot out there in some cases. And, as I noted in my posts, there is some disagreement in some cases about some of the basic facts like bridge lengths or construction dates. Hope what I was able to find was helpful for you.
One of the last stories I did this month was one about one of the few covered bridges in Michigan.