Covered Bridge Tour

I have never seen a covered bridge so I took myself to Blount County, which has three of Alabama's 11 covered bridges. Blount County claims to be the covered bridge capital of Alabama. The drive to Blount County was about 2 1/2 hours from Montgomery, and would have been very scenic except that it's still mostly winter here. Nevertheless, the open meadows and thick trees (albeit bare right now) made the drive a lot more interesting than I-5 from SF to LA that I used to drive all the time.

So, these covered bridges were built to cross rivers and creeks. Apparently, bridges are made of heart pine. They are covered so that the bridge planks are protected from weather and from rotting.

The first bridge I saw was Swann Bridge. It's the longest bridge in Alabama at 324 feet. I wasn't sure if I could drive across the bridge so I mostly admired the view.

Then I saw the Old Easley Bridge. This is the shortest bridge in Alabama at 96 feet. While I was taking pictures, a car drove by and crossed the bridge answering my query on whether it was safe for me to drive over! =)

The last bridge I saw was Horton Mill Bridge. This is the highest covered bridge, standing 70 feet over the Black Warrior River. It spans 220 feet long. They apparently have covered bridge festival by this bridge. I was amused to see that people had carved or written their names inside the bridge. I was tempted but decided against leaving my name as well. I decided to take myself across the bridge and back before heading back to Montgomery.

I wanted to visit a ghost town today (Cahaba Archaeological Park) but it was rainy. So my adventure this weekend was limited to the bridges, which is enough for me. Next week, I go to Selma for their annual re-enactment of the Civil Rights March from Selma to Montgomery!!