Covered bridges in Greene County, Ohio
There's a soft spot in my heart for covered bridges. Greene County, Ohio, where I grew up, once had dozens of covered bridges, mostly built during the second half of the nineteenth century. Several of these bridges were still in use while I was a child, and I understood that Greene County had at that time more working covered bridges than any other county west of Vermont. Sadly most of these bridges have vanished, succumbing to modernity (or to arson).
Follow the bridge-name links below for information about a few of the bridges that still endured while I was growing up. Their names are quite evocative for me. My family had a large-scale roadmap of the county with a tiny red icon of a covered bridge at each site. As I grew up, I would carry this map with me on backroad bicycle rides, often seeking routes that would include one or more of these bridges.
The Washington Mill Road Bridge was probably my favorite covered bridge, only about seven miles from my home. It crossed the Little Miami River near Bellbrook, in a lovely setting with a magnificent sycamore tree nearby. It was destroyed by arson in 1968.
The Cemetery Road Bridge was originally located near the southern border of Greene County, where it crossed Anderson Fork. (That site is now within Caesar Creek Wildlife Area.) I visited this bridge only once, on a bike ride that also took in the Henville Road and two Engle Mill Road bridges. At the time (in 1964, when I was sixteen years old), this was the longest one-day ride that I had ever taken (over 50 miles) on my coaster-brake bicycle. I remember noticing with curiosity that after Cemetery Road crossed the bridge into Clinton County, the road sign read Graveyard Lane. In 1975, this bridge was relocated to the northeast where it was shortened and rebuilt across Yellow Springs Creek beside Grinnell Road. The picture at left above was taken in 2019, when I chanced upon the site during a visit to Glen Helen.
The Henville Road Bridge crossed Caesar Creek south of Xenia. This bridge was lost in 1965, only a year after my first and only visit on a ride that also included the Engle Mill Road bridges and the Cemetery Road bridge.
The West Engle Mill Road Bridge, across Anderson Fork south of Xenia, is reported as still standing, restored with a historical marker.
The East Engle Mill Road Bridge, across Anderson Fork south of Xenia, collapsed in 1978.
The Jacoby Road Bridge, across the Little Miami River a couple miles downstream from John Bryan State Park, was located in a picturesque hollow south of Yellow Springs. Apart from a steep hill down to or up from the stream, riding across this bridge could be easily included along a ride to that park or to Glen Helen nearby. Memorable among the graffiti within this bridge were some carefully drawn musical notes wafting up from a mud dauber nest; the artist had evidently noticed how closely the appearance of the wasp-sculpture resembled pan-pipes. This bridge was destroyed by arson in 1970
The Charleton Mill Road Bridge across Massies Creek northeast of Xenia was still functional during a three-generation family outing in 1990. In the images at right, our children are under the bridge, my father is beside the car with my mother inside, and I am behind the camera. The listing for this bridge at lostbridges.org indicates that it was razed in 2013, but the street-view imagery of GoogleEarth (in 2024) shows that it was evidently reconstructed in that same year, since the date 2013 is posted on the new bridge.
The Stevenson Road Bridge across Massies Creek northeast of Xenia is reported as restored, with a historical marker.
The Ballard Road Bridge, reported as still standing, crossed the North Branch of Caesar Creek east of Xenia, fairly far from my home. I bicycled to this bridge once in June of 1965, just a couple days before leaving for a summer of ecological study at the University of Colorado's Mountain Research Station. Foolishly I received quite a sunburn during this ride, so sheets of skin were peeling from my arms and neck while my father drove me (with his mother) to the research camp.
Related links:
Greene County Ohio; county road map.
Ohio Historic Bridge Association.
The website for lostbridges.org includes a searchable inventory of covered bridges across the country, with over a hundred listings for Greene County, Ohio. The inventory includes the location for each bridge as well as date built, date lost, cause of loss, and brief description with photographs when available.
Comments and questions: dgking@siu.edu
SIUC / Zoology / David King
https://dgkinglab.siu.edu/GCcoveredbridges.htm
Last updated: 2 October 2024 / dgk
