Images and history of Virginia's Covered Bridges

At least 137 wooden bridges have been documented in Virginia; some were covered, while others consisted only of trusses and exposed beams. Almost all have been replaced with steel truss bridges.

The earliest documented covered bridge in Virginia is the Clearwater Park bridge across the Jackson River in Alleghany County. It was built in 1834, only to be washed away in 1887. The last wooden bridge to be constructed in Virginia was built across the Hyco River in Halifax County in 1925.

Virginia had eight covered bridges in 2015, but by 2020 had only six.  Four of these bridges are open to the public, while the other two remain on private property.

The oldest remaining covered bridge in Virginia is the Humpback Bridge, known for its distinctive shape with a four-foot rise in the middle, built in 1857 and surviving the Civil War.

The last covered bridge to disappear in Virginia was the C.K. Reynolds Covered Bridge over Sinking Creek in Giles County, built originally in 1919. One end was washed away in a 2007 flood, but it was repaired. A 2012 storm nearly blew down the wooden cover protecting the bridge, but a tractor and hay baler parked inside kept it intact. A March 1, 2017, windstorm finally knocked the cover over completely. The steel girders on the concrete abutments remained, and the bridge was still functional, but it was no longer a covered bridge.

In addition to floods and inattentive drivers, arson is one of the greatest threats to the remaining wooden bridges.

Virginia's Bridges photographed in September of 2021.