Eldean Covered Bridge
Miami County, Miami County, Ohio
Marker Inscription
Originally known as Allen’s Mill Bridge, the Eldean Covered Bridge was built over the Great Miami River in 1860 for Miami County by the Hamilton Brothers of nearby Piqua. Its 224 feet place it among Ohio’s longest covered bridges.
Erected by Ohio History Connection
The Story
Spanning the Great Miami River near Troy, the Eldean Covered Bridge dates to 1860, when the Hamilton Brothers of Piqua raised it for Miami County using the Long truss design patented decades earlier by Stephen H. Long. Originally called Allen's Mill Bridge for the gristmill it served, it carried farm wagons and local traffic across a river that could turn treacherous in flood. At 224 feet across two spans, it stands among the longest surviving covered bridges in Ohio and one of the finest examples of its truss type in the country.
Why it matters
Covered bridges like the Eldean protected their wooden trusses from rot and let rural nineteenth-century America knit farms to mills and markets across unbridged rivers; its survival makes it a rare working relic of the craftsmanship that carried the country's inland commerce before the age of steel and concrete.
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Related people
- · Hamilton Brothers
Themes & tags
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