This is an completed project to photograph my motorcycle in front of every covered bridge in the state of Oregon. There are a total of 53 covered bridges that I have been able to find references for. They stretch from Multnomah County to Deschutes County and all the way down to Josephine County. Most are from the 1910’s to the 1930s but some are much older and some much newer. The majority are wooden Howe or Queen Truss-style bridges while a few simply have covers on top of modern concrete spans.
For those interested in discovering the covered bridges of Oregon, the Wikipedia page has a fairly comprehensive list and lots of good information on them. However, the coordinates that Wikipedia has are often wildly inaccurate, sometimes placing bridges 50 miles away from their true locations. The Wikipedia article also lists one of the bridges as being in ruins when it was actually rebuilt in 2008. The best source of directions to find covered bridges comes from the Covered Bridge Society of Oregon. All of the geographical coordinates I provide on this site should be exactly where the bridges are located. If I post about a bridge, it’s because I’ve physically been there and taken a photo of the bridge and my motorcycle.
One bridge that doesn’t seem to be listed on the Covered Bridge Society of Oregon’s website is the Don Porter Covered Bridge in Josephine County. I found reference to it on a website dedicated to Southern Oregon. The Bridge Hunter website might also be useful to find potentially unlisted or unrecognized bridges. Do a category search for “Covered” and “Oregon” to find the relevant bridges. Similarly, if you know of any other covered bridges in the state that don’t appear on the Covered Bridge Society of Oregon’s website, please let me know so that I can go visit it and take a photograph.
After visiting 53 covered bridges, I can say that it is well worth the journey. You will be taken to many obscure places in the state that you otherwise would never have had reason to visit. Now that I am done with the project, I find myself a little sad that there aren’t more bridges to visit.
The map below shows all of the bridges that I have visited and photographed.