Georgia Covered Bridges

I wanted to write this page because of an article I wrote about this covered bridge and submitted to a magazine. However, when I turned the article in: I was told that it was good but I did not have Historical Photos and I needed more historical facts related to this bridge so they could not accept it at this time. But they did suggest that I submit it to a local traveling magazine, which I have not done. I am going to post some of my article in this Hub, just to highlight a couple different covered bridges.

One day I did a search online and sent out several emails to different magazines trying to submit my photography. This particular magazine wanted articles a long with pictures. The whole magazine focuses around "historical" "old time" topics and Covered Bridges just fits right into that category.

How all of this got started was my love for photography and teaching myself how to use my new camera. On most weekends, my husband and I will venture out and find unique things to photograph and it just so happens "Covered Bridges" is what interest us at the moment.

The original bridge was built in 1885 by Washington W.W. King and was 236 feet long. When the covered bridge was rebuilt, it was built 229 feet long and is still considered the longest covered bridge in Georgia and one of the longest covered bridges in the United States.

The bridge was restored in 1973 by the Georgia Department of Transportation to serve as a nucleus for the surrounding state park. There was a time when Georgia had over 200 different covered bridges and today there are only about 20 that remain.

Watson Mill State Park

Watson Mill State Park is considered to be one of the most picturesque state parks in Georgia.  The park is an ideal spot for an afternoon picnic or if you wanted to take a good day hike, there are several different trails.  The park also has bike trails and horseback riding trails that allow the visitors to enjoy the thick forest along the river.  There are over 1,000 acres to explore and a 5 acre mill pond.  If you wanted to spend the weekend, there is a campsite where you can put up a tent, park your trailer or RV or you can even stay in one of the parks Cabin Bunkhouse that accommodates eight people.   

The scenery at the park is unbelievable especially for photographers.  Since most of my photography focuses around Nature, it was a never ending exploration for me.

Howard’s Covered Bridge was formerly known as “Big Clouds Creek Bridge” located in Lexington, Georgia.  It was built in 1904-05 to replace an earlier structure (which some of research suggest the original bridge was built in 1840) and is 252 ½ feet long.  This bridge is not opened for traffic but has remained a historic landmark.

This bridge is located in a very isolated section of historical Oglethorpe County and has suffered a lot from neglect and vandalism.  To get to this bridge you have travel a little way down this dirt road. With it being so isolated, I suppose it would make it easier for some people to go in and trash it.  That really saddens me because this bridge holds a lot of years of memories and such.  There were some repairs done to the bridge in 1998.

In the first set of pictures I took (I deleted them all) all of them had graffiti all over the front the bridge. For some unknown reason I did not even realize at first until I uploaded them. The picture listed here is one I took of the back of the bridge over the weekend.

When my husband and I went to Helen to shoot some photography, we seen a sign that lead us to this little covered bridge. What makes this historical site so sad is ALL of the graffiti on the bridge itself.

I tried my best to capture an angle that did not show the graffiti but I was not able to capture the full effect of the bridge. But still you are able to see part of it, and just by looking at it you can tell it is a small bridge.

Can you believe the sign? This little covered bridge was featured in a movie!!