Skip to main content

West Liberty Street Covered Bridge - Geneva, Ohio

Image
By


 
Ashtabula County, Ohio boasts both the longest and shortest covered bridges currently standing in the United States, just a mere twelve miles apart from each other. The shorter of the bridges is the West Liberty Street Covered Bridge, located in Geneva, Ohio. The covered bridge spans 18 feet in length and was built in 2011 to replace a damaged culvert. The bridge uses a single kingpost truss and was the first modern kingpost timber covered bridge in Ashtabula County. With exception of the railings for the sidewalk, the covered bridge is a bit more open than many longer spans, but also features a roof with a more pronounced slope than many other covered bridges. A toll booth was also built to pay homage to the days when a toll collector was stationed at many a covered bridge.

It was in October 2007 when Geneva city manager Jim Pearson announced a plan to build the shortest covered bridge in the United States in the city. Since Ashtabula County is known for its wide array of covered bridges, the thought was to honor this fact and build something that brings people to the area. The city of Geneva really tried to bring the local community together with the construction of the covered bridge. John Smolen, a former Ashtabula County engineer and founder of Smolen Engineering in Jefferson, Ohio, designed the West Liberty Street Covered Bridge. A local mill processed the wood that, and roofing materials came in as a donation. Wood used in the construction of the covered bridge was selected from locally sourced oak, maple and poplar trees. Students from the Ashtabula County Technical and Career Campus built the covered bridge in a modular fashion.

I had the chance to visit the West Liberty Street Covered Bridge and visit this quirky little spot. I appreciate the outside the box thinking in transforming a standard culvert into something memorable that the entire community can be proud of and enjoy, whether they drive a car, ride a bike or walk along the bridge's sidewalks.






How to Get There:



Sources and Links:
Ashtabula County Barn Quilt Trail - West Liberty Street, Geneva
Ohio Magazine - Nation’s Shortest Covered Bridge, Geneva 
Ashtabula County, Ohio Visitors Bureau - West Liberty Street Covered Bridge
The Historical Marker Database - Liberty Street Covered Bridge
Labels:
Location: W Liberty St, Geneva, OH 44041, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I-40 rockslide uncovers old debates on highway

By
The Asheville Citizen-Times continues to do a great job covering all the angles of the Interstate 40 Haywood County rock slide. An article in Sunday's edition provides a strong historical perspective on how the Pigeon River routing of Interstate 40 came about. And perhaps most strikingly, in an article that ran just prior to the highway's opening in the fall of 1968, how engineers from both Tennessee and North Carolina warned "...that slides would probably be a major problem along the route for many years." On February 12, 1969, not long after the Interstate opened, the first rock slide that would close I-40 occurred. Like many other Interstates within North Carolina, Interstate 40 through the mountains has a history prior to formation of the Interstate Highway System and was also a heated political battle between local communities. The discussion for a road that would eventually become Interstate 40 dates back to the 1940's as the idea for interregional high
2 comments
Read more

Mines Road

By
Mines Road is an approximately twenty-eight-mile highway located in the rural parts of the Diablo Range east of the San Francisco Bay Area.  Mines Road begins in San Antonio Valley in Santa Clara County and terminates at Tesla Road near Livermore of Alameda County.  The highway essentially is a modern overlay of the 1840s Mexican haul trail up Arroyo Mocho known as La Vereda del Monte.  The modern corridor of Mines Road took shape in the early twentieth century following development of San Antonio Valley amid a magnesite mining boom.  Part 1; the history of Mines Road Modern Mines Road partially overlays the historic corridor used by La Vereda del Monte (Mountain Trail).  La Vereda del Monte was part of a remote overland route through the Diablo Range primarily used to drive cattle from Alta California to Sonora.  The trail was most heavily used during the latter days of Alta California during the 1840s. La Vereda del Monte originated at Point of Timber between modern day Byron and Bre
Post a Comment
Read more

Former California State Route 41 past Bates Station

By
When California State Route 41 was commissioned during August 1934 it was aligned along the then existing Fresno-Yosemite Road north of the San Joaquin River.  Within the Sierra Nevada foothills of Madera County, the original highway alignment ran past Bates Station via what is now Madera County Road 209, part of eastern Road 406 and Road 207.   Bates Station was a stage station plotted during the early 1880s at what was the intersection of the Coarsegold Road and Stockton-Los Angeles Road.   The modern alignment bypassing Bates Station to the east would be reopened to traffic during late 1939.   Part 1; the history of California State Route 41 past Bates Station Bates Station was featured as one of the many 1875-1899 Madera County era towns in the May 21, 1968, Madera Tribune .  Post Office Service at Bates Station is noted to have been established on November 23, 1883 and ran continuously until October 31, 1903.  The postal name was sourced from Bates Station owner/operator George Ba
Post a Comment
Read more