Everett Covered Bridge (Cuyahoga Valley National Park)

Everett Covered Bridge is located on Furnace Run west of the namesake community in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The structure is thought to have been originally built sometime between the 1870s and early 1880s. The span was swept away by floods in 1975 and was eventually rebuilt as a National Park Service project in 1986. The structure is the last Covered Bridge in Summit County and until recently served as the junction of several roads.

The history of Everett Covered Bridge

Everett Covered Bridge lies to the west of the namesake community and the Ohio & Erie Canal on Furnace Run. The exact date of construction of the structure is unknown but it is thought to have been built during the 1870s or early 1880s. The design of the bridge is based off the 1869 Smith Truss design.

Everett Covered Bridge can be seen along Everett Road (blue pin) at Furnace Run on the 1903 United States Geological Survey Map of Akron. The structure is shown to serve as the junction of Wheatly Road, Everett Road and Oak Hill Road.

Everett Covered Bridge was damaged by floods during in 1913. The then damaged structure can be seen prior to repairs in a National Park Service photo.

Everett Covered Bridge was damaged by a truck in 1970 but repaired. Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area was declared in December 1974 which brought the structure into scope of responsibility for the National Park Service. The bridge swept downstream by floods in 1975. Numerous local interests began raising funds to reconstruct the bridge. The reconstructed span was completed by the National Park Service in 1986 and reopened to traffic.

Everett Covered Bridge can be seen again functioning as the fork in Everett Road, Oak Hill Road and Wheatley Road on the 1994 United States Geological Survey map of Peninsula. During October 2000 Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area would become a National Park.

Portions Everett Road, Oak Hill Road and Meirs Road west of Furnace Run were recently closed to traffic. These segments of road have since been repurposed as the Riding Run Trail and Perkins Bridle Trail.

Part 2; a visit to Everett Covered Bridge

Everett Covered Bridge can be found by following Everett Road west of Riverview Road to a trailhead.

From the trailhead it is a short walk over the abandoned portion of Everett Road to the bridge.

West of Furnace Run the now overgrowing branch in Oak Hill Road (left) and Everett Road (right) can be seen.

The same junction during Fall 2014 before the asphalt had been removed.

East of Furnace Run the original beginning westbound Wheatley Road can be easily found.

Comments

Chowchilla Mountain Road to Yosemite National Park

Chowchilla Mountain Road of Mariposa County is one of the oldest roadways servicing Yosemite National Park. As presently configured this fourteen-mile highway begins at California State Route 49 near Elliot Corner and terminates at the Wawona Road in Yosemite National Park. Chowchilla Mountain Road was constructed as a franchise toll road over Battalion Pass circa 1869-1870. The highway was built at behest of Galen Clark to connect the town of Mariposa to his property near the South Fork Merced River at what is now Wawona. In late 1874 the highway along with Clark’s Station would be purchased by the Washburn Brothers. The Washburn Brothers would continue to toll Chowchilla Mountain Road as part of their Yosemite Stage Route lines. The highway would ultimately become a Mariposa County public highway in 1917. Mariposa would later be more directly linked with Yosemite Valley in 1926 following the completion of the Yosemite All-Year Highwa...

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l...

Angus L. Macdonald Bridge

At 1.3 kilometers (or about 0.84 miles) in length, the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge is one of two bridges crossing over the Halifax Harbour between Halifax, Nova Scotia and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, with the other bridge being the A. Murray Mackay Bridge . Opened in 1955 and named after former Nova Scotia Premier and Canadian Minister of Defense for Naval Services Angus L. Macdonald, the Macdonald Bridge was the first bridge that crossed Halifax Harbour that was opened to traffic. The Macdonald Bridge was also the subject of the Big Lift, which was only the second time in history that the span of a suspension bridge were replaced while the bridge was open to traffic. Planning began in 2010 for the Big Lift, while construction took place between 2015 and 2017. Similar work occurred on the Lion's Gate Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia before the project took place on the Macdonald Bridge. At this time, much of the bridge infrastructure is new, leaving only the towers, main cables and...