Black (Pugh's Mill) Covered Bridge
Oxford Township, Butler County, Ohio
Marker Inscription
The Black (Pugh's Mill) Covered Bridge One of the longest and most impressive of Ohio's covered bridges, the Black (Pugh's Mill) Bridge was built in 1868-1869 by master builders Bandin, Butin, and Bowman. It is unique for its combination of two truss types - Childs and Long - within a single structure. Originally a cambered (arched) single span of 209 feet with a roadway width of 18 feet, it was modified in 1869 with the inclusion of a central pier under it for additional support. The trusses were then remodeled by replacing some of the wooden diagonals with iron rods to enable the builders to lower the bridge down onto the pier by backing off the nuts on the ends of the rods, thus elimination the camber and forming two spans instead of one.
Erected by The Ohio Historical Society
The Story
Spanning Four Mile Creek in Butler County, the Black (Pugh's Mill) Covered Bridge was raised in 1868–69 by master builders who joined two different truss systems—Childs and Long—inside one roof, a rare engineering marriage. Originally a single arched span of more than 200 feet, it was cleverly re-engineered the next year by slackening iron rods to lower the deck onto a new central pier, splitting one span into two. It remains among the longest and most ambitious of Ohio's surviving covered bridges.
Why it matters
The bridge captures the ingenuity of 19th-century American timber engineering, when local builders solved big structural problems with wood, iron, and improvisation.
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