Sometimes it is good to have a small, doable goal. My goal of the day was to take a photo of every working covered bridge in Washington State. The Grays River Covered Bridge in western Wahkiakum County, Washington is Washington State’s only such bridge, though there are several others that are not operational or not public. This bridge was constructed in 1905 to facilitate the horse and wagon traffic of nearby farms. The cover was added in 1908 to protect the wood trusses. It was placed on the national registry of historic places in 1971 and the historic nomination form can be found here. Over the years, the bridge fell into disrepair and was renovated and reconstructed in 1988 and rededicated in 1989. The bridge span is 155.5 feet and the height of the bridge is 22.5 feet. The bridge is part of the Ahlberg Park which is the site of an annual covered bridge festival. A much better photo and more information can be found in the Wikipedia article. It was raining so hard and for so long that I just couldn’t bring myself to go out in the wet field for the photographic shot! Though I did include a bonus photo of a nearby barn!

Dear husband remembered the tradition of covered bridges being kissing bridges and claimed a kiss mid-span. It use to be, back in the day of wagons, that young folks would take advantage of the privacy of the covered bridges for a kiss or two.

It has been about 10 years since I’ve been on a covered bridge, with the last one being Emily’s Bridge in Vermont. Vermont wins the contest for the state with the most covered bridges. I actually have a photo of that Vermont bridge from ten years ago.