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Holliwell and Hogback Covered Bridges


We visited the Holliwell Bridge (built 1880) and the Hogback Bridge (1884) in Madison County, Iowa in May on our Winterset trip.  Both bridges were built by Benton Jones.  Of the six covered bridges still standing in the county, Holliwell is the longest, and Hogback was the last to be built.  Hogback is named after a nearby limestone ridge. In the photos below, you may notice the difference in bridge structure.  The Hogback bridge below top left was built using the Town lattice truss system, while the Holliwell bridge was built with a covered wood bow truss. The bridges have been used as an area guest book for over a century, and their interiors are covered with graffiti.  The oldest initials we found were "J.W.B." from 1892.  I imagine there may be older initials that we couldn't find or that had faded--so he (or she) probably shouldn't get all the blame--but I wonder if J.W.B. realized what he was starting when he carved his initials in the bridge! We noticed one couple signed in from Thailand, as did a family from Alaska...and so many others!  Some people included witty sayings.  One of my favorites was the rather hypocritical remark "Please do not write on the bridges!"  I'm not fond of graffiti, but it was interesting to see what everyone had written. There were many tourists at the Holliwell Bridge.  It was Memorial Day weekend, and a race was also going through the area.  We had plenty of time to admire that bridge, but it was getting late by the time we visited Hogback, so our visit there was brief. I'm glad we stopped to see some of Madison County's covered bridges.
"Prayer is a bridge from your mess to God's rest."  --Unknown Labels: Bridges, Madison County, Travel, Winterset Trip

