The covered bridges of Union County, Ohio

April 25, 2024

Upcoming Plant Sales

There will be FOUR events in the next few weeks, so mark your calendars and be sure to stop by one (or all!) of them. All proceeds help benefit our local schools. Each of the sales will offer native plants (note that some are not on the Portland Plant List). Please see below for more details about each sale! Fort Vancouver High School Plant Sale: Wednesday, April 24, 8am-6pm, Thursday, April 25, 8am-5pm and Friday, April 26, 8am-4pm Native plants available: Trees: Cascara, Oregon White Oak, Vine Maple, Douglas Fir, Western Hemlock, Western Red Cedar; Shrubs: Mock Orange, Flowering Red Currant, Red Twig Dogwood, Cascade Oregon Grape, Baldhip Rose, Nootka Rose, Douglas Spirea, Thimbleberry , Serviceberry, Red Elderberry, Blue Elderberry, Black Hawthorn, Salmonberry, Golden Currant, Smooth Sumac, Salal; Groundcovers : Western Yarrow, Wild Ginger, Sword Fern, Goldenrod, Blue-Eyed Grass, Soft Fruited Bulrush, Tufted Hair Grass, Oregon Sunshine, Maidenhair Fern, Checkermallow, Sedum Spat

Here are a few photos of the covered bridges of Union County, Ohio. We had a day to ourselves and decided to tour the countryside after finding a brochure at our motel on these covered bridges in a nearby county.

It took us a while to get our bearings and we quickly learned that a GPS is not very helpful for locating bridges. We stopped at a service station to ask for directions and I could not help but notice that they had a fantastic deli with great looking sandwiches and pizza. We got directions from a very helpful lady, got some sandwiches and headed toward the first bridge, which was just a few miles away. We had a picnic in the back of the car.

The bridges were all built in the late 1800s with the exception of a few. All were marked with plaques that explained the history and cost of the bridge and information about the men who built them.

I wondered why bridges were covered in the first place? I thought maybe it was to keep horses from being frightened about stepping across a platform over open water. Michael thought that maybe they served as protection for travelers in the case of storms or rain. Well, it turns out we were both wrong. According to an Internet search, the answer is obvious and simple - covering the bridges protected them from rotting. An uncovered bridge might last about ten years whereas a covered one can last for centuries.