* - [Announcer] This program is made by MPT to serve all of our diverse communities and is made possible by the generous support of our members.

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(relaxing instrumental music) (water rushing) - [Lance] Covered bridges open a window onto America's restless everyday past.

(birds chirping) The heyday of covered bridges was the 19th century as farming, industry, and population pushed the frontier ever westward.

Covered bridges were built along ancient trails and stream crossings, often near timber or gristmills.

(water rushing) They offered travelers shelter from storms and gathered villagers for public or secret meetings.

(birds chirping) In their day, covered bridges were considered marvels of engineering.

And so designers and builders are the rock stars of covered bridges.

Their bridge supports or trusses are variations on a triangle, or for longer spans, the graceful arch.

The earliest designers like Ithiel Town and Theodore Burr patented their truss designs and charged up to $5 a foot for their use.

(birds chirping) (relaxing instrumental music continues) Covered bridges may seem quintessential Americana, but the idea was brought to our shores from Europe.

Craftsmen adapted covered bridges to their own local streams, and stone, and timber.

Thereby, giving expression to a true American genius.

(relaxing instrumental music continues) Today's passionate devotees of covered bridges, nicknamed Bridgers, come from all walks of life.

Archivists, engineers, professors, writers.

They're the unsung heroes behind many restoration and preservation efforts.

For covered bridges are still vanishing, helpless victims of vandalism, flood, fire, and neglect.

Join us for this exploration of covered bridges of Maryland and surrounding states, a nostalgic journey along the byways of time.

(birds chirping) (water rushing) (relaxing instrumental music continues) (water rushing) (cheerful bluegrass music) Maryland's first two covered bridges were built by private investors over the mighty Susquehanna River in the early 1800s.

The 4,000 foot covered bridge in Port Deposit was an engineering wonder of many spans.

But Mike Dickson, Cecil County Historian, recalls how it failed infamously.

- The one in Port Deposit collapsed under the weight of a herd of 110 cattle one time.

(water splashing) - [Lance] Today, Maryland has six authentic historic covered bridges, all in northern counties.

None survived over the Susquehanna, but the rest are all close enough to each other for a leisurely weekend road trip.

The Roddy Road Covered Bridge, built in 1856 over Owens Creek, north of Thurmont in Frederick County is Maryland's shortest covered bridge at only 45 feet.

It has a simple triangular truss aficionados call a King Post.

(relaxing orchestral music) (water rushing) - [Jeff] So this is kind of a picture postcard setting.

- [Lance] Jeff Yocum is with the nonprofit Frederick County Covered Bridge Preservation Society and lives near Roddy Road Bridge.

Like all old bridges, Roddy Road has seen some history.

They say Confederate soldiers crossed the bridge on the way to Gettysburg.

- There is some evidence that Jeb Stuart actually took horses off to the farmhouse where I live in.

So it's seen action all the way back to the Civil War.

- [Lance] Covered bridges' massive timbers are last reminders of America's mighty trees of long gone virgin forests.

Many of these timbers bear the mark of craftsman's tools or traces of 19th century village notices, or even secret messages.

Even vandals carving their initials feel the lure of covered bridges as places of lively, local identity and expression.

Nowhere is this sense of community more evident than at the Loys Station Bridge, Frederick County.

90 feet long, it spans Owens Creek and is named for a nearby railroad stop, both part of the country's transportation history.

Loys Station was built about 1860 and during its long life, the bridge survived floods and ice jams, but in 1991, fell victim to the fiery torch of an arsonist.

It was a senseless tragedy, one that echoes again and again in the story of covered bridges.

Nothing remained of the beloved landmark but a charred skeleton and the invincible spirit of the community.

(tools banging and sawing) - [Man] We didn't want just the bridge replaced with a modern bridge.

We all wanted the covered bridge back.

- [Lance] The community even sold shingles at a dollar a piece and Loys Station reopened three years later with a jubilant rededication ceremony.

- [Man] We had about 7,000 people show up.

There was just a community effort to do something, put back into the community.

- [Lance] Utica Mills Covered Bridge over Fishing Creek in Frederick County originally spanned the Monocacy River.

Dean Fitzgerald is President of the Frederick County Covered Bridge Preservation Society.

- [Dean] It was destroyed during the Johnstown Flood in 1889.

After the flood, the debris was relocated here and reconstructed in 1891.

- [Lance] The 101 foot bridge is supported by a soaring arch and like all three Frederick County bridges, is a favorite of Civil War buffs, antique car enthusiasts, and bicycle groups.

Brian King rides with the Frederick Pedalers Bicycle Club.

- [Brian] The sound closes in on you and it's usually darker than the surrounding area so it feels like you are just going through a tunnel and riding through history and then emerging back out into the countryside.

- [Lance] Further east, Baltimore and Hartford Counties each lay claim to half of Jericho Covered Bridge.

The 84 foot long bridge spans the Little Gunpowder Falls River, which like many rivers forms the boundary between two counties.

Jericho Bridge linked historic Jerusalem Mills with cotton factories downstream and now lies within Gunpowder Falls State Park.

(water splashing) John McGrain is the Baltimore County Historian.

- There was a tradition that you should wish for something when you go over a bridge, whether the wishes are granted is not the territory of historians.

(chuckles) - [Lance] Cecil County once had at least 21 covered bridges, though only two remain today.

119 foot Gilpin's Falls Covered Bridge spans Northeast Creek.

It was built in 1860 along a major route from Pennsylvania to the Upper Chesapeake Bay and its fishermen's wharves.

(relaxing music) The bridge hasn't borne traffic since the 1930s, but still mischievous Mike Abrams remembers when it did.

- I was born and raised about 500 yards from the bridge.

We used to make mud pies and get up on top of the bridge, and when a Pennsylvania car would come through, we'd drop one on it because we knew they couldn't get up on the bridge to get at us.

(Mike laughing) - [Lance] Earl Simmers also played near the bridge as a child.

- [Earl] And it's just that we cherish the memory of those childhood things.

- [Lance] Simmers and others are classic Bridgers obsessed with covered bridges.

They've worked tirelessly with the County to raise funds to restore the bridge and gain recognition for it on the County and National Historic Registers.

Restoration is a daunting engineering challenge.

The bridge was originally built for about $2,000.

Restoration today, 1.2 million.

- [Earl] The problem is how do you lift 119 foot long, 43 ton structure to take out the ends of these arches and replace them?

- [Lance] Work began on historic restoration in the spring of 2009.

(water bubbling) Time has been kinder to the Foxcatcher Farms Bridge built over Big Elk Creek in Cecil County.

Mike Dickson, Cecil County Historian.

- [Mike] Foxcatcher Bridge was built in 1860 and it was built by Ferdinand Wood for the County Commissioners.

Cost them $1,175 and it still stands today in fine condition.

- [Lance] Hunters and hounds once chased foxes through this bridge when it was part of a DuPont estate.

Today, the bridge is owned by the Fair Hills Natural Resources Management Area on Nathan Graham's beat.

- [Nathan] Walking through the bridge, it's almost like an old farmhouse.

It creeks, there's that certain feel of old wood underneath of you, and it has a certain smell to it.

I personally like how it looks in all four seasons.

The area around it changes yet it stays steadfast.

(ethereal music) - [Lance] Once Delaware boasted as many as 28 covered bridges, all in New Castle County.

Today, only three authentically restored covered bridges remain.

Marjorie McNinch, a Reference Archivist at the Hagley Library, visited rustic Ashland Covered Bridge before it was restored and after.

She published, "Bridges," her book on Delaware covered bridges in 1995.

Ashland Bridge was built sometime between 1850 and 1865, but there had been a mill at the site since the 1670s.

Like many early covered bridges, Ashland was built by a private mill owner, even though it lay on a post or public road.

Ashland Covered Bridge is only 52 feet long and spans gentle Little Red Clay Creek.

The area supported agriculture rather than heavy industry early on, so Ashland was built with a simple but sufficient lattice truss design.

- The type of bridge was patented by Ithiel Town in 1820 and there were seven bridges of that type on the Red Clay Creek.

It was expedient and they didn't need to use any iron rods or anything in it.

They would build the plank bridge across the creek and then they would build the housing, the cover, and then plop it on top of the plank bridge.

Stepping into a covered bridge is like stepping into another world because you have the play of light, you have the noise of the planks under foot, and you have the river flowing underneath that you can see.

The Ashland Bridge is on the National Register for Historic Places and has a lot of the charm of yesteryear.

(ethereal music continues) - [Lance] Because of its listing on the National Register and because it's a working bridge, Ashland Covered Bridge was restored using innovative fireproof materials.

Across the country, many state Departments of Transportation fund covered bridge restoration when the structure's still bear traffic.

Local advocates lobby for historic accuracy.

Marjorie McNinch visited the day Ashland Covered Bridge was reopened by the Delaware Department of Transportation.

(audience applauding) - The use of the newer materials in the bridge do not detract from its old charm.

The restoration of the Ashland Bridge will assure this community the bridge will be standing 150 years from now.

(water bubbling) (upbeat jazz music) - [Lance] Another Delaware historic covered bridge, Smith's Bridge, was built in 1839 with a long Burr Arch.

Irenee du Pont Junior, descendant and namesake of the 19th century DuPont Company Founder, has a mansion on the hill overlooking Smith's Covered Bridge on the Brandywine Creek.

- [Irenee] My parents were avid canoeists.

Back then, we would take overnight camping trips on the Brandywine.

- [Lance] Brandywine Creek is famous for its picturesque beauty and one lane Smith's Bridge is helping to keep the valley unspoiled by urban sprawl and speed.

- [Irenee] Many of the younger set around here have learned to call Smith's Bridge the Manners Bridge because the people that drive over it are so pleased that they wave to each other and stop unnecessarily to let the other one go through.

(upbeat jazz music continues) - [Lance] The ruined foundation of an old gristmill can be seen on the banks near the bridge.

(relaxing music) Legend has it that during George Washington's campaigns at Brandywine and Valley Forge this mill owner, secretly loyal to the British Crown, provided flour to Washington's troops.

- Well, it didn't take long for the Washington's Army's people to find out that there was broken glass in the flour and they knew exactly where it came from.

And the legend says that the Miller was found hanging from the crane that lifts barrels up into the top of the mill.

He did not survive.

- [Lance] Irenee du Pont was not here the night Smith's Bridge met its fiery demise by arson.

- In 1961, after it had been painstakingly restored, there came mischief night in which it mysteriously caught fire.

And we later learned that five gallons of gasoline had been dumped from an automobile as it drove through the bridge.

We hustled out here when we heard there was a fire and took pictures and it was a sad state.

- [Lance] Smith's Bridge was restored again in 2002 by the Delaware Department of Transportation.

A third historic covered bridge on private land at Wooddale was washed away by floods from tropical storm Henry in 2003.

It was authentically restored and reopened in late 2008.

(water rushing) Pennsylvania boasts America's first covered bridge and has over 200 covered bridges still standing, more than any other state in the country.

Choosing just a handful to visit is like trying to decide in a candy store, but these flavors are oldest, longest, just plain typical, unique, fancy.

(rooster crowing) Roger McCain is Professor in the Department of Economics and International Business at Drexel University.

He publishes articles with titles like, "Fuzzy Confidence Intervals In A Theory "Of Economic Rationality."

And he was the first to post a list of covered bridges on the worldwide web way back in the early 1990s.

High tech met old tech.

- That's probably how I became a little more known, that crazy covered bridge guy on the internet.

One of the things I really enjoy about finding covered bridges is that so many of them are really in quite remote spots, places you wouldn't go for any practical purposes of rule.

Some can be tricky to find too.

- [Lance] Eastern PA, here we come.

There are two Dutch styles here, Fancy and Plain.

(birds chirping) - [Roger] In the Berks County, the area that people call the Fancy Dutch Country, you would see some very ornate covered bridges with hex signs and ornamental carpentry.

- [Lance] Historians debate whether hex signs have ornamental or magical meaning, but they reflect Fancy Dutch rather than Plain or Amish and Mennonite styles.

(birds chirping) Wertz's Bridge, or Wertz's Red Bridge, is a centerpiece of the Berks County Heritage Center.

Built in 1867 with a Burr Arch, it stretches more than 200 feet over Topo Hawkin Creek, the longest single span covered bridge in Pennsylvania.

(water rushing) Closed to traffic, Wertz's Covered Bridge has beautiful hex art.

Remote Dreibelbis Station Covered Bridge was built in 1869 over Maiden Creek.

(ethereal music continues) It still bears traffic and has both hex signs and fancy opening or portal architecture.

(rooster crowing) (birds chirping) Built very long ago in 1832, Griesemer's Mill Bridge has a Burr Arch and spans 124 feet over Manatawny Creek.

It's Berks County's oldest covered bridge and has lovely hex art.

Adjacent to the bridge is a non-working but picturesque old stone gristmill.

(water rushing) (relaxing music) Lancaster County, southwest of Berks County, is noted for its Amish and Mennonite culture.

The county has the second largest number of covered bridges of any state in the country.

Berks County was Fancy Dutch, Lancaster County is Plain Dutch.

Pine Grove Covered Bridge over Octoraro Creek dates from the 1880s.

Other bridges here had been swept away by floods.

Pine Grove is another covered bridge with a split personality.

- The far end of the bridge is definitely in Chester County.

This end is definitely in Lancaster County, and perhaps the middle is a little ambiguous for all I know.

There are really two bridges here.

Because it's a long double bridge, there are two successive arches on each side of the bridge.

- [Lance] Pine Grove Covered Bridge was restored in 2008.

Not far from Pine Grove lies White Rock, or White Rock Forge Bridge.

- It's a smaller bridge.

It is on the west branch of Octoraro Creek so it's in the same watershed.

This is one of those bridges that's in a place most people don't go very often.

This is a pretty old bridge in a sense.

The original covered bridge here was built in 1846, but it was destroyed in the 1880s.

And when the new bridge was built, it was built to exactly the pattern of the old bridge.

This really is quite a typical Lancaster County bridge.

Like many all of them, it has the Burr Arch structure and a fairly simple, not very decorated, portal.

Just really a typical Lancaster County bridge, it truly is.

- [Lance] Picturesque Zook's Mill Covered Bridge, also known as Cocalico Bridge Number Seven, spans Cocalico Creek.

Covered bridges of old were called kissing bridges.

Sheltering walls and cooled darkness framed a perfect opportunity for a private tryst.

The romance of covered bridges remains.

This couple is having their engagement pictures taken at beautiful, enduring Zook's Mill Covered Bridge.

Built with a Burr Arch, this bridge is over 160 years old.

Unlike other covered bridges in the area, Zook's Mill has survived modern traffic and the ravages of Hurricane Agnes.

- [Roger] What you see here today is pretty much the bridge that was built here in the 1840s.

- [Lance] By now you've noticed a lot of covered bridges use a supporting truss called a Burr Arch, patented way back in 1804 by Theodore Burr, cousin of the notorious Vice President, Aaron Burr.

A couple of notable exceptions to bridges with arches lie in Western Pennsylvania, so that's where we're headed next.

(water rushing) Dramatic McConnell's Mill Covered Bridge in McConnell's Mill State Park in Lawrence County, has criss-cross supports called a Howe Truss, after the designer.

Iron rods allow the bridge to be tightened, a design so clever it was later adopted by railroad covered bridges across America.

Tom Walczak is President of the Theodore Berg Covered Bridge Society of Pennsylvania.

Walczak and the Society are very active in promoting and preserving covered bridges.

- The McConnell's Mill Bridge is located across the Slippery Rock Creek.

Lot of kayaks and canoers come here for the Whitewater rafting and it's also very dangerous.

The area was formed with the melting of the glacier as a deposit, a lot of these large boulders here.

The bridge itself was built in 1874.

We're quite fortunate here in Western Pennsylvania, still have this beautiful example of a covered bridge in a gristmill setting and also with the waterfalls in the background which gave power to the mill.

(water rushing) Even back in the old days, covered bridges were a popular spot.

People would gather and enjoy the scenery.

We have here a shot of McConnell's Mill Bridge at the early turn of the century with a group of people in their Sunday finest.

- [Lance] Tom Walczak has loved covered bridges since he was 12.

He's a collector by nature.

Photographs, postcards, pins, and more, all with covered bridges.

This is a mere fraction of his collection, brought to Kidd's Mill Covered Bridge over the Shenango River.

Kidd's Mill is the only authentic remaining covered bridge in Mercer County and is notable for its simple criss-cross Smith Truss, developed by Robert Smith of Tippecanoe City, Ohio.

(cheerful music) It begins to rain at Kidd's Mill, a story in itself.

- The bridges were covered mainly to protect the main wooden truss members from the elements, the snow and the rain.

An uncovered wooden bridge had a lifespan of 10 to 20 years, but a properly covered wooden bridge had a lifespan of 40, 50, even longer years, as evidenced by this bridge was built 1868 and here it is still standing today.

- [Lance] Kidd's Mill was bypassed in the 1980s.

It no longer bears traffic.

(cheerful music continues) For the last stop in Pennsylvania, but hardly Pennsylvania's last covered bridge, we return to a classic style.

Except that Bank's Covered Bridge is painted an unusual luminous white.

- [Tom] The Bank's Cover Bridge in Lawrence County Pennsylvania, was built in 1889.

It crosses the Neshannock Creek and it is a typical Burr Arch truss style.

- [Lance] Well worth the trip off the beaten path.

(upbeat bluegrass music) West Virginia's rugged mountain valleys and wild rivers boast 17 standing covered bridges, most in northern counties.

As vital transportation links, bridges are often battlegrounds during war.

In fact, maximum load strength for covered bridges in the 19th century were calculated using the weight of marching troops in close order.

- [Soldier] Fire!

(guns firing) - [Lance] Philippi Covered Bridge over the Tygart Valley River in Barbour County, is the most visited historic bridge in West Virginia, built when the state was still part of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Emory Kemp is retired Professor of Civil Engineering and Founder of the Institute for the History of Technology and Industrial Archeology at West Virginia University.

Dr. Kemp designed the restoration of this bridge and more than a dozen others from New York to New Orleans.

- This is the Philippi Bridge, completed in 1852.

It was the scene of the first skirmish of the Civil War.

- [Lance] Confederate forces occupied the bridge.

- Union forces came up on this lofty ridge over here and they fired on to the rebel position and they retreated hastily down Main Street, which is just over here.

And they were derisively called by their Union forces as the Philippi Races.

- [Lance] West Virginia's pioneering covered bridge builder, Lemuel Chenoweth, designed Philippi and nearly 20 others.

The story goes that he won the contract by standing on his model of the trusses before the Virginia Board of Public Works.

Chenoweth built Philippi to last, but it was nearly destroyed by devastating accidental fire in 1989.

Emory Kemp used the original specs to restore this unusual double span, double lane, 300 foot bridge.

- [Emory] It's a very notable bridge and the workmanship is outstanding.

(relaxing music) - [Lance] Barrackville, another Chenoweth bridge, was built in 1853 with a Burr Arch.

It crosses Buffalo Creek in Marion County.

During the famous Jones Raid during the Civil War, nearby mill owners convinced the Confederate General not to burn down this bridge.

It survived.

Part of the 19th century turnpike system, but is now safe from traffic.

- [Emory] It's never been reinforced so it remains an outstanding example of a Theodore Burr Truss Bridge.

- [Lance] Emory Kemp is a collector of rare 19th century tools.

- [Emory] We have found particularly on the bigger bridges like this one that some of these hand tools are the most efficient way to do the restoration work.

(relaxing harmonica music) - [Lance] Also in Barbour County is lovely Carrollton Bridge built in 1856 over the Buckhannon River.

The bridge has been reinforced to carry heavy coal trucks, a concrete contrast to its delicate decoration.

- [Emory] This star-shaped logo is very reminiscent of Pennsylvania rather than the Virginias.

One of the outstanding features of this bridge is the stone work done by Emmett O'Brien.

- [Lance] O'Brien also had done the stone work for Philippi Bridge to the north.

- The stone was quarried locally and obviously, brought here by horse and wagon.

It's laid up dry with no mortar.

This is a particularly fine example of stone masonry that was used repeatedly on covered bridges.

- [Lance] Perhaps no covered bridge in West Virginia expresses local craftsmanship better than Indian Creek Covered Bridge in the southern part of the state, Monroe County.

(upbeat bluegrass music) - [Emory] Many of the covered bridges were built by unschooled builders.

This one is rather unique in that these were teenagers and that's probably its most notable feature.

- [Lance] The Weikel brothers, as they told it later, had recently invested $10 each in a portable saw mill against their mother's advice.

They were only 15 and 18 years old after all.

Soon after, the boys bid on the Indian Creek Bridge contract and actually won.

They built their bridge with a simple Howe Truss.

It was 1898.

The bridge was built along the ancient North, South Seneca Indian Trail.

It no longer bears traffic, but for decades has been the picturesque destination for visitors from nearby Salt Sulphur Springs Resort.

(cheerful upbeat music) Virginia has eight covered timber bridges still standing.

Five are preserved as public landmarks, three are on private land.

Leola B.

Pierce has tirelessly documented their colorful histories and precise dimensions in her book, "Covered Bridges in Virginia: "Nine Old Ladies in the Slow Lane."

Since publication, the ninth covered bridge has been destroyed by flood.

Leola Pierce's own life warrants a book too.

She served as a Marine, worked as a spy, a design draftsman, transportation engineer, and is co-founder of the Covered Bridge Society of Virginia.

Meem's Bottom Covered Bridge on the north fork of the Shenandoah River in Shenandoah County was the one that first inspired Leola Pierce to pursue covered bridges.

- I had been so used to working on state concrete, modern day bridges and when I first came up here, I couldn't believe it.

Here's all this traffic coming over and it was a timber bridge.

And I became really fascinated and changed all my plans and went south.

I mean, I stopped at every covered bridge.

- [Lance] Meem's Bottom was built in 1894 with a Burr Arch by John Woods as a link from a private farm to the main road.

At 203 and a half feet, Meem's Bottom is the longest timber covered bridge in Virginia and the only one still bearing traffic.

In a sad, familiar story, Halloween pranksters burned it down in 1976.

But with the help of Emory Kemp, this bridge was historically restored by the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Now Meem's Bottom is on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.

(relaxing music) Built in 1857, Humpback Covered Bridge over Dunlap Creek in Allegheny County is the oldest standing covered bridge in Virginia.

- It's important because it's the only bridge in Virginia with the hump design and also in the United States.

- [Lance] Granddaddy Humpback, as it's known, was built along U.S. 60, once known as The Buffalo Trail.

It's 107 feet in length with a four foot, one inch rise at the arch.

Humpback Covered Bridge is a survivor of the Civil War, floods, the railroad, and at one time, neglect.

Now it's on the State and National Registers of Historic places, a worthy inspiration for Leola Pierce's poem.

- [Leola] Those timber decks did creak and groan as wheels and herds crossed over.

Settlers, peddlers, soldiers too, they were welcome, all who came.

(water rushing) - [Lance] 70 Foot long Sinking Creek Bridge was built in 1916 over Sinking Creek.

Closed to traffic, local donations saved this bridge.

It's now maintained by Giles County.

Sinking Creek Bridge has an unusual local adaptation to farming life.

- [Leola] There's a little underpass and it makes it easier for the farm animals to get back and forth.

But it's very unique.

I don't know of another one like it anywhere.

- [Lance] This covered bridge lies along the Appalachian Trail and many visitors leave their sweet impressions on the guest book.

(upbeat music with applauding) Steve Pierce, Leola's son, has documented all of Virginia's covered bridges with his fine photographs, including the three historic covered bridges on private land not open to the public.

Link's Farm and C.K.

Reynolds Covered Bridges, also along Sinking Creek in Giles County, and the Biedler Farm Covered Bridge in Rockingham County.

Leola and Steve helped launch the annual Virginia Covered Bridge Festival in Woolwine, Patrick County.

The June festival celebrates Bob White and Jack Creek's Covered Bridges, both over Smith River.

The smallest of the two, Jack's Creek Covered Bridge, was built in 1914, and back then was the only access to Jack's Creek Primitive Baptist Church.

The bridge uses natural bedrock for support and parishioners wade into the creek for baptism.

Betty Perry is granddaughter of Walter Weaver, who designed Jack's Creek and built this bridge, Bob White, in 1921.

Her father remembered it being built.

Family folklore.

- My father loved to tell stories about this bridge.

How they would walk down here to bring the water and bring food and they would be barefooted, and they would stop and play with children along the way.

And the bridges meant a lot to my dad.

(insects buzzing) (relaxing music) - [Lance] By the late 1800s, iron bridges were being prefabricated and assembled on site.

Brought in by the railroad, the next great link in America's transportation history.

(water rushing) The era of covered bridges is long gone but a new one is beginning as those who cherish timber covered bridges and their local histories work to preserve and protect this rural treasure.

- These bridges are the forerunners of the magnificent steel bridges that we have today.

- [Tom] The covered bridge is an American icon and there's an increasing interest now in interpreting these and restoring them.

(insects buzzing) - Well, how many times you hear somebody, "Let's go out and look at the old barns "and covered bridges."

It's part of American tradition.

- They are, most of them, pretty old.

They're taking you back to a time that most of us probably feel pretty sentimental about.

You might almost call it a sentimental time machine.

(relaxing music continues) - Weddings took place there.

Courting took place there.

It offered shelter to travelers.

It's a time past.

It marks a time past.

- They're such an integral part of the fabric of our community here that not taking care of them is wrong.

- [Lance] These are our bridges, America's heritage spanning and pausing for just a moment, the irreversible river of time.

(water rushing) (relaxing piano music) (water rushing) (relaxing instrumental music) (water rushing) - [Announcer] This program was made by MPT to serve all of our diverse communities.

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