The Bridgeport Covered Bridge is located in Bridgeport, Nevada County, California, southwest of

French Corral French Corral is an unincorporated community approximately five miles west of California State Highway 49 in Nevada County, California. It was one of the first of several historic California gold rush mining camps along the San Juan Ridge. The ...

and north of Lake Wildwood. It is used as a pedestrian crossing over the South

Yuba River The Yuba River is a tributary of the Feather River in the Sierra Nevada and eastern Sacramento Valley, in the U.S. state of California. The main stem of the river is about long, and its headwaters are split into three major forks. The Yuba River ...

. The bridge was built in 1862 by David John Wood. Its lumber came from Plum Valley in

Sierra County, California Sierra County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,236, making it California's second-least populous county. The county seat is Downieville; the sole incorporated city is Loyalton ...

. The bridge was closed to vehicular traffic in 1972 and pedestrian traffic in 2011 due to

deferred maintenance Deferred maintenance is the practice of postponing maintenance activities such as repairs on both real property (i.e. infrastructure) and personal property (i.e. machinery) in order to save costs, meet budget funding levels, or realign available bud ...

and "structural problems". On June 20, 2014, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed budget legislation that included $1.3 million for the bridge's restoration. The work was slated to be done in two phases—near-term stabilization followed by restoration. The bridge reopened to pedestrians in November 2021 following completion of the restoration work. The Bridgeport Covered Bridge has the longest clear single span of any surviving wooden

covered bridge A covered bridge is a timber-truss bridge with a roof, decking, and siding, which in most covered bridges create an almost complete enclosure. The purpose of the covering is to protect the wooden structural members from the weather. Uncovered woo ...

in the world.

Historic landmark

The bridge is California Registered Historical Landmark No. 390, was designated as a

National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark __NOTOC__ The following is a list of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks as designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers since it began the program in 1964. The designation is granted to projects, structures, and sites in the United State ...

in 1970, and was listed in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1971. There are four plaques at the site. The State Historical Landmark plaque was placed in 1964. The landmark was rededicated in 2014. The inscription on the current plaque reads:

"Built in 1862 by David J. Wood with lumber from his mill in Sierra County. The covered bridge was part of the Virginia Turnpike Company toll road that served the northern mines and the Nevada Comstock Lode. The associated ranch and resources for rest and repair provided a necessary lifeline across the Sierra Nevada. Utilizing a unique combination truss and arch construction, Bridgeport Covered Bridge is one of the oldest housed spans in the western United States and the longest single span wooden covered bridge in the world."

The bridge was an important link in a freight-hauling route that stretched from the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

Virginia City, Nevada Virginia City is a census-designated place (CDP) that is the county seat of Storey County, Nevada, and the largest community in the county. The city is a part of the Reno– Sparks Metropolitan Statistical Area. Virginia City developed as a boom ...

and points beyond after the discovery of the

Comstock Lode The Comstock Lode is a lode of silver ore located under the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range in Virginia City, Nevada (then western Utah Territory), which was the first major discovery of silver ore in the United ...

in 1859 sparked a mining boom in Nevada.
Steamboats carried freight
from the San Francisco Bay up the Sacramento River to Marysville, where it was loaded onto wagons for the trip across the Sierra Nevada via th
Virginia Turnpike
and Henness Pass Road. The route across the bridge was ultimately eclipsed by the completion of the

First transcontinental railroad North America's first transcontinental railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the " Overland Route") was a continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail netwo ...

as far as

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the c ...

in 1868 via

Donner Pass Donner Pass is a mountain pass in the northern Sierra Nevada, above Donner Lake and Donner Memorial State Park about west of Truckee, California. Like the Sierra Nevada themselves, the pass has a steep approach from the east and a gradual appro ...

, but it continued to serve nearby communities in the foothills until improved roads and bridges on other routes drew away most of the traffic.

Longest span

A report by the

U.S. Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...

states that the Bridgeport Covered Bridge ( No. CA-41) has clear spans of on one side and on the other, while

Old Blenheim Bridge Old Blenheim Bridge was a wooden covered bridge that spanned Schoharie Creek in North Blenheim, New York, United States. With an open span of , it had the second longest span of any surviving single-span covered bridge in the world. The 1862 Br ...

( No. NY-331) had a documented clear span of in the middle (1936 drawings). With the 2011 destruction of the

, the Bridgeport Covered Bridge is the undisputed longest-span wooden covered bridge still surviving. Historically, the longest single-span covered bridge on record was Pennsylvania's

McCall's Ferry Bridge ''McCall's'' was a monthly American women's magazine, published by the McCall Corporation, that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. It was established as a small-fo ...

with a claimed clear span of (built 1814–15, destroyed by ice jam 1817).

External links

Bridgeport Covered Bridge, at Nevada County, California website
* ttp://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=496 South Yuba River State Park* *
Bridgeport Covered Bridge at the Covered Spans of Yesteryear websiteSouth Yuba River Park Adventures, pictures, events, maps, wildflowers

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in California Wooden bridges in California Pedestrian bridges in California Bridges in Nevada County, California Bridges completed in 1862 California Historical Landmarks Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks Covered bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in California National Register of Historic Places in Nevada County, California Former road bridges in the United States Historic American Buildings Survey in California Historic American Engineering Record in California Tourist attractions in Nevada County, California 1862 establishments in California Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in California Burr Truss bridges in the United States

Historic landmark

Longest span

See also

External links

References