Covered Bridges and Country Roads

Andover, Ohio High 81 Low 61

It was a beautiful day today with not a cloud in the sky. We went for a ride in the country to see some of the covered bridges in the Ashtabula County. Altogether there are 18 bridges, but we only drove to 12. It was still a long day.

First I have some pictures of the sunset night before last and some traffic scenes we got on the way here. The Interstate was stopped and I decided to get off and take some of the side roads. We were at least moving, but the traffic on what was the narrowest 2 lane road I have ever been on was nerve racking to say the least. We were glad to get out of Cleveland and out in the country.

Cindy thought this was a good use of an old ambulance.

Emergency Golf Cart Repair is the name of the business

The first bridge we saw was built in 1985, but had the covered bridge look

 This bridge didn't have a road to or from it, so I guess the road bi-passed it. There are steps going to the deck, with a picnic table in side.

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The age seemed to vary from 1985 back to 1885 and all ages in between. A lot of them had been refurbished in 1985 to 1995. We had no idea that there were covered bridges in the area, but someone in the park told us about them and about the tour map. We were glad to have seen them.

Here, I'm showing the old wooden dowels hold the bridge together. The newer ones had lot of carriage bolts holding them together.









We also saw the longest covered bridge in the United States. The shortest (18 feet long) is also in the area but we didn't make it to it today. This bridge is 30 feet wide and 613 feet long. It is 93 feet above the River. Enough wood was used in it's construction to cover a football field 13 inches deep. Construction was complete in 2006.

We saw lots of gravel roads and some of the pictures of the rivers were kind of unique. We also saw some Amish farmers harvesting hay. The bailer looked like an antique.

The last three bridges we saw were probably the oldest. Two of them had laminated arched supports on both sides.

The road bi-pass this bridge.

The last one we saw, could be driven through, but only had a four ton limit. My truck probably weighs more than that, so we didn't drive through.

We saw a covered bridge pizza place on the way here, and decided to try it out. The prices were very reasonable. Cindy had a large chefs's salad and I had spaghetti and meat balls. Mine came with a salad and a small loaf of bread. The total bill was $13.00. We didn't think that was too bad for the amount of food we got. Some of the spaghetti went home with us. We thought it was interesting about the history behind the Covered Bridge Pizza place. In 1972 the County wanted to get rid of the old bridge, and so they held a public auction. The highest and only bid they got was for $5.00. The man that bought it then used half of the bridge for two different restaurants. The dining room is the old bridge.

I realize this is a little long, but thanks for visiting.