The Bridges of Madison County (Day 1)

As I mentioned on my last post, we returned today from a 10 day trip to Wisconsin. Alex and I actually flew to Kansas City, MO to hook up with my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and her 5 month old son, Baby H. From Kansas City, we started our drive north and passed some signs about the Bridges of Madison County and decided to take a detour and drive out to see these incredible bridges.

The drive was beautiful as many of the trees were showing their fall colors and we saw many corn fields. We also tried to take photos of a few hawks, but I never got a good shot. On our side trip, we made it to two of the bridges. My sil has an iPhone, so we decided to look up "why" these bridges were built and just how many bridges were built and how many still existed. (I LOVED having her iPhone and being able to look up things immediately!)

Here's what we found from this site: "Originally boasting 19 covered bridges, six remain today, all listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The bridges were covered by order of the County Board of Supervisors to help preserve the large flooring timbers, which were more expensive to replace than the lumber used to cover the bridge sides and roof. Usually, the bridges were named for the resident who lived closest."

Of the 6 remaining bridges which were all built in the late 1800's, we visited 2 of them: the Hogback Bridge and the Cedar Bridge.






These are photos of the Hogback Bridge. I found this article saying from 2003 that said "(The Hogback) bridge, with a rare Burr arch roof, burned on the one-year anniversary of an arson fire at the famed Cedar Bridge in Madison County. The Cedar Bridge was destroyed on Sept. 3, 2002." Thankfully, some passers-by put out this fire quickly, and only a 1-foot square section was burned. This bridge is only opened to pedestrians, not vehicles.



At each end of the bridge were white painted areas and, sadly, they were covered with graffiti.


My sil had the great idea to shoot this photo. I love the way it turned out. It's my favorite photo of the bridge.

These last 2 photos are of the 2nd bridge we visited, Cedar Bridge. This bridge was destroyed by arson in 2002, but this replica was built from the original plans using authentic materials and methods.



It is the only one of the 6 "remaining" bridges that you can drive your vehicle across - which we did.