Qualla: Simpson Creek Covered Bridge

Simpson Creek Covered Bridge: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit KLOTZPLATE, CC BY-SA 4.0. A covered bridge does not usually move. Once carpenters have raised the trusses, fitted the deck, and shingled the roof, the bridge becomes part of its creek the way the rocks and banks do. The Simpson Creek Covered Bridge in Bridgeport, West Virginia, broke that rule. In July 1889, a flood lifted the bridge off its abutments and sent it downstream. When the waters subsided, what was left of it was hauled half a mile upstream and rebuilt - and there, near the entrance to what is now the Meadowbrook Mall, the bridge has stood for the last 137 years, painted barn-red and still carrying traffic.

Image: KLOTZPLATE | CC BY-SA 4.0

Simpson Creek Covered Bridge: An 1881 Bridge by Asa Hugill

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Americasroof at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 2.5. The original bridge was built in 1881 by Asa Hugill, a regional bridge builder who knew the multiple-kingpost truss design well - a system of vertical posts radiating from a central kingpost, supported by diagonal braces. The result was a span 75 feet long, with a roadway width o...

Image: Americasroof at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 2.5

Simpson Creek Covered Bridge: The Flood and the Move

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Americasroof at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 2.5. Eight years after Hugill finished the bridge, Simpson Creek rose in a way the builders had not anticipated. The July 1889 flood washed the bridge from its original site. Rather than abandon the structure or build a new one, the community salvaged what they could and relocated the...

Image: Americasroof at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 2.5

Simpson Creek Covered Bridge: Two Bridges Left in the County

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Americasroof at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 2.5. Harrison County once had several covered bridges, the way most West Virginia counties did before the automotive age. Iron, steel, and concrete made wooden covered bridges obsolete almost as quickly as the railroad did, and most were torn down or simply rotted away. Today, Simpson...

Image: Americasroof at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 2.5

Simpson Creek Covered Bridge: Saved Again in 2001

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Americasroof at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 2.5. By the late 1990s, time was catching up with the bridge again. The deck was tired, the siding was weathered, and the paint was peeling. In the fall of 2001, the West Virginia Division of Highways spent nearly $400,000 to renovate Simpson Creek. The repairs included a new timber d...

Image: Americasroof at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 2.5