The Dressler Covered Bridge
the Smallest Covered Bridge in Columbia County

For those romantics who love the days gone by, the simpler life, this is for you. It is about our heritage, about covered wooden bridges, a way of crossing a body of water with protection from sudden rain and snow, a way to keep moisture off travelers. Today I'll tell you about a covered bridge which was not specifically designed for a tunnel of love for some romantic couple out for a ride in a their buggy or sled. It is a modern covered bridge. And a tiny one, to boot! It is certainly the smallest covered bridge in Columbia County.

The covered bridges of a bygone age were sometimes used by more than one local boy when he puffed his first cigarette, and evil doers sometimes lurked in the shadows of the bridge, but none of that is true with this bridge.

The old covered bridges were generally a triumph of local engineering. The first bridges in North America were corduroy or log. They were miserable and poorly constructed and exceedingly uneven and bone-shaking. They consisted for the most part of unhewn trunks of trees of unequal sizes laid loosely across pieces of timber placed lengthways. When the trees became rotten, they sometimes gave way and horses and carriages would slip through. These first bridges were essentially platforms crossing streams on multiple piles. This bridge is none of that.

Some readers may remember that on the western approach to the old covered bridge at Forks there was a sign hung with black Roman-style lettering that read...

NOTICE: For riding, driving or leading or causing to be ridden, driven or lead, any horse or beast of burden, faster than a walk, not less than five dollars nor more than thirty dollars. For driving cattle faster than a walk, not less than five dollars nor more than thirty dollars. For carrying fire across the bridge and except it be secured in a lantern or vessel, five dollars.

Covered bridge were found in countries where there was a lot of wood. The covering of wooden bridges is not new--there are two in Switzerland more than 600 years old. The first-known covered bridge in North America was built between 1797 and 1804 in Philadelphia--550 feet of a 1,300-foot bridge were covered. The idea of covered bridges spread like wildfire and country roads began connecting hamlets via a secure passage over water.

Grover Nevin Dressler built his covered bridge on the family farm in Divide in memory of his father, Nevin J. Dressler, who lived on the "other side of the creek" from Grover. The Dresslers had an open bridge on his property since 1976, fashioned in part with the help of his father to place the 8" I beams so that the bridge could support lawn tractors. Nevin passed away in 1995 and Grover built the covered bridge in the spring of 2000. Like the craftsmen who built the local covered bridges, Grover realized that to prevent the wooden planks from rotting the bridge should be covered.

The Dressler Covered Bridge as it looked this spring.
The bridge is about 8’ wide by 15’ long.

Grover's sister, Betty Lou Stoneham, made bridge signs marked "The Nevin J. Dressler Memorial Bridge." Grover and his wife, Debbie, are "amazed how many folks are interested in this little bridge." They have had "folks from Lancaster and Berks Counties stop for pictures."

The Dressler covered bridge with its painted roof and flowers.

Nevin and Deb's daughter, Rebecca, was married in the bridge when she and Joe Mood tied the knot before moving into the house where her grandfather once lived.

The Dressler bridge is a far cry from the longest covered bridge in the world. Canada's Hartland Bridge is 1,282 feet long and dates back to 1898 as a toll bridge of seven Howe truss spans. Grover Dressler is just as proud of his lilttle bridge as the residents of New Brunswick are with their bridge.

If you want to continue reading about covered bridges in Columbia County, click here.