Has to be the east fork of the Hood River, covered bridge was across the river on what is Woodworth Road. To my knowledge this was the only covered bridge in Hood River. One of my best high school friends lived just a few hundred yards from it. It was there when I was a teen ager and saw it up close.

So sad it was destroyed and I don't know whether it was taken out manually or if a flood finally sent it off into history.

Charlott on 7th November 2011 @ 8:06am

My mother was born just downstream in what had been the post office. She remembers walking across this bridge often. In the fall they skirted the annual camp of natives who came to pick huckleberries. I remember seeing the bridge once, I think it became so dangerous it was taken down... After the Columbus Day storm maybe.

Melanee on 7th November 2011 @ 8:19am

Charlott and Melanee are of course correct. This is the bridge on Woodworth Road over the East Fork of the Hood River. Perhaps someone will check the county records to see when it was removed.

The covered bridge certainly had a grace and elegance missing in the modern span, but I suspect maintaining an old wooden bridge is about as hard as maintaining an old wooden ship.

Arthur on 7th November 2011 @ 8:36am

I've always wondered why it was thought to be important to cover a bridge back then? Any reason other than that it looked neat?

Dan on 7th November 2011 @ 9:17am

The County has a drawing dated 1954 showing the "covered bridge" about 300 feet upstream from the present location. There is also an ODOT drawing of what appears to be the present bridge dated 1954, so that should be approximately when the covered bridge was replaced. A1969 aerial photo still shows the old road leading to where the bridge would've been, and of course shows the new bridge.

spinsur on 7th November 2011 @ 9:20am

Best reason we can come up with, is prior to "modern" preservatives, it was the best way to protect the bridge itself from rot.

spinsur on 7th November 2011 @ 9:22am

There are at least 2 general reasons commonly given for covering-- one of them is as given by spinsur. The other is because horse-drawn wagons were the normal vehicles of transportation, and covered sides/top prevented the horses from getting too skittish from the view....

Paul Kollas on 7th November 2011 @ 9:46am

And of course, as best we know, the newspaper named it "The Covered Bridge" thus starting a long history of choosing inspring names for County Landmarks - culminating with the naming of a huge 5 acre sandbar at the Hood River Delta as "The Sandbar!"

steve s on 7th November 2011 @ 10:04am

Oh no you di'int!
Snap!

andrew b on 7th November 2011 @ 2:43pm

The date of putting the new bridge in sounds about right to me and naturally the new bridge was located down river there. I know it stood there for a long time after I first knew about it...........lots of interesting stories about around that bridge......................

Charlott on 7th November 2011 @ 2:45pm

This is from the HR Glacier Aug. 3, 1889, page 2.
I wonder if it could be the same bridge before the cover was added.

"The Stage Co.'s road from Baldwin homestead to the bridge, can be greatly improved by keeping on directly south on the county road, instead of turning down on the sandy river bottoms.
Arriving at the bridge we made camp on the west side near the river. The bridge across the East Fork is a substantial structure of about 120 feet in length and a sixty foot span across the mainstream, was built by Stranahan Bros., and is a credit to both builders, and the owners."

l.e. on 7th November 2011 @ 2:52pm

Melanee, I am curious if the natives picked huckleberries close by or were they on their way to higher ground?

l.e. on 7th November 2011 @ 4:46pm

From what mom remembers they picked mostly Lost Lake and Red Hill from that base camp. No berries any closer than that!

Melanee on 7th November 2011 @ 4:53pm

Double-checked, she says the natives also camped there during the summers while picking strawberries for various growers in the upper valley (this would have been in the 20s and 30s.) She doesn't remember hearing it called anything other than the Covered Bridge.

Melanee on 7th November 2011 @ 9:03pm

If you look closely where the sides are missing, there was a pedestrian walk with a rail separating it from traffic. Mom claims she sat on that rail and visited with my dad while their brothers wandered off under the bridge with their girlfriends...

Melanee on 7th November 2011 @ 9:09pm

While a covered bridge may have had animal control purposes, the primary reason was to preserve the wood thus the Chambers Covered Railroad Bridge in Cottage Grove. The rebuilt bridge will have an "open house" and ribbon cutting December 3rd. The only remaining covered RR bridge in Oregon. Great picture!

Arlen Sheldrake on 7th November 2011 @ 11:10pm

Melanee....I encourage you to do more of this with your mom.
When my dad was under hospice care I stayed with him. I would sit and read a recent book that had been put out by a local historian. My dad's body was failing but his mind was excellent and the little stories that would come from one picture or one sentence was amazing and precious and I have already forgotten some of them.

l.e. on 8th November 2011 @ 6:50am

Thanks l.e., we try to see each picture of places and people she might remember every chance we get. You're right, I've heard these stories so long I don't remember them; the pictures bring them to life and some surprises I haven't heard as well! Arthur and Connie, when you get a chance :), maybe there could be a slide show at the retirement homes and have someone to record their memories and identifications? They have great stories but no way to participate with these fantastic photos!

Dedilee on 8th November 2011 @ 10:04am

One more comment to pass on... The openings on the side were intentional and on both sides of the bridge, for light.

Melanee on 8th November 2011 @ 3:34pm

Like I said, this is the only covered bridge I was ever aware of in Hood River County. As Stranahans were of that area there is no doubt but what they had a hand in the construction. Anyway it was a wonderful addition to Hood River/Wasco County History. Just too bad that people were not in the preserving mode in those days.

Charlott on 8th November 2011 @ 4:14pm

There was another covered bridge at Dee. I went to Dee School in the late forties and I remember the school bus driving through the covered bridge.

Jan Elliott on 7th December 2012 @ 9:48pm

I remember the Dee covered bridge too, and it amazed me, as a small boy, that they covered the bridge and then ran sprinklers on the top of it. Did they want it out in the weather or not? Dad said it was for fire protection which sounds reasonable. They had some experience with fire at the Dee mill.

Jack Sheppard on 11th February 2017 @ 10:14pm

Yes. There was a covered bridge in Dee near the Dee sawmill. My family liked to have weekend picnic lunches at the punch bowl during the forties and fifties and we had to cross the bridge in order to get there. I think it still existed in the sixties before being destroyed and subsequently replaced by the current structure.

Earle Minor on 12th October 2017 @ 3:14pm