14 of America’s Most Beautiful Lesser-Known Bridges

Covered Bridges of Blount County, Alabama

Lovers of old-fashioned covered bridges can find a trove of these historic spans on the back roads of Alabama, where 10 19th- and early 20th-century examples are still in daily use. Each wooden bridge is unique in style and size, and the oldest predate the Civil War.

A good place to start a tour is Oneonta, the county seat of Blount County and Alabama’s Covered Bridge Capital. From Oneonta you can easily drive to three scenic bridge sites. Easley Bridge (1927) is a single-span 95-foot-long tin-roofed bridge over Dub Branch creek in the community of Rosa. Swann Bridge (c. 1933, shown here), originally named Joy Bridge, crosses the Black Warrior River; at 324 feet, it’s the longest of the covered bridges remaining in Alabama. Horton Mill Bridge (1935) also spans the Black Warrior. Rising 70 feet above the river gorge, it’s not only the nation’s highest covered bridge over water but also the first Southern bridge listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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