Ohio’s oldest covered bridge is actually two bridges in one and it’s still standing

It’s been crossing the Grand River since 1868

Ashtabula County sits in the northeast corner of Ohio, and it has more covered bridges than any other county in the state.

Nineteen of them, spread across the hills and river valleys that early settlers from New England shaped into something that looks more like Connecticut than the Midwest.

The centerpiece is a 228-foot bridge in Harpersfield Township that survived a Civil War-era flood, a catastrophic 1913 disaster, and more than 150 years of Ohio winters.

What it looks like today is unlike any other covered bridge in the country.

The bridge that a flood forced into two pieces

The Harpersfield Covered Bridge went up in 1868, replacing an earlier bridge that a spring flood wiped out. For 45 years, the wooden structure carried County Road 154 across the Grand River without issue.

Then came 1913, when a statewide flood tore through Ohio and washed away the land at the bridge’s north end, shifting the river channel in the process.

Engineers solved the problem by bolting a 140-foot steel truss span onto the north end.

The result is a bridge that’s half covered wood, half open steel, and entirely unlike anything else you’ll find in Ohio.

How the Howe truss held it all together

The wooden half of the bridge uses a Howe truss design, patented by William Howe of Massachusetts in 1840.

The pattern is easy to spot once you know what to look for: wooden diagonal braces running in compression, iron rods running vertically in tension, all of it forming a repeating X across the length of the frame.

It was one of the most widely used bridge designs of the 1800s because it worked for both highway and railroad loads and was faster to build than earlier methods.

The Harpersfield bridge uses two spans with a center pier, which is how it stretches to 228 feet.

A century later, the bridge gets a second life

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, the bridge has gone through two major overhauls since then.

The first, in 1991-92, strengthened the lower chords, replaced the floor, and added a cantilevered pedestrian walkway along one side.

The second came in 2022, when the bridge closed again for another full rehabilitation funded largely by federal grants, with additional support from an Ohio Public Works grant and local funds. It reopened to vehicles on May 24, 2024.

Traffic still moves one direction at a time, regulated by signals on both ends.

The 53-acre park wrapping around the river

The bridge sits inside the Harpersfield Covered Bridge Metropark, a 53-acre park that runs along both sides of the Grand River.

The park has been here since 1961 and expanded in the early 1990s through land donations and grants.

Pavilions with electric hookups, picnic tables, bench swings, restrooms, a play area, and covered gathering areas fill out the grounds. A seasonal gift and bait shop operates on the north side near the steel span.

Admission is free, the park stays open year-round, and the whole setup works whether you’re there for an hour or an afternoon.

Steelhead runs and smallmouth bass below the dam

The Grand River is one of Ohio’s state-designated Wild and Scenic Rivers, the largest Lake Erie tributary in the state.

At Harpersfield, the river draws anglers from October through May for steelhead trout runs, with fish that average 25 to 28 inches and five to eight pounds.

The shallows below the dam pull in families with kids for wading, and the deeper holes hold smallmouth bass, bluegill, crappie, and largemouth bass.

The bait shop on the north side of the bridge means you can show up without gear and still get on the water.

Put in a kayak and follow the wooded bluffs

The park serves as a launch point for kayak and canoe trips on the Grand River.

The stretch through Ashtabula County runs through wooded bluffs, steep river valleys, and streamside forest. You’re not fighting white water here.

The river moves at a pace where you can stop paddling and look up at the tree cover without drifting too far.

Birders come for the river corridor too, where deer, waterfowl, and a range of woodland species work the banks. Bring binoculars if birds are your thing.

19 covered bridges, one county, one driving tour

Ashtabula County’s 19 public covered bridges range from 1860s originals to structures completed as recently as 2016, with six built since 1983.

The variety of construction methods alone makes a driving tour worth the time.

You’ll find Town Lattice, Howe Truss, Burr Arch, Pratt Truss, Inverted Haupt, and Kingpost designs scattered across the county.

The tradition goes back to early settlers from New England’s Connecticut Western Reserve, who brought covered bridge construction with them when they moved into northeast Ohio in the early 1800s.

The longest and shortest covered bridges in America, same county

Both extremes sit right here. The Smolen-Gulf Bridge, completed in 2008, spans 613 feet across the Ashtabula River and rises 93 feet above the water. It’s the longest covered bridge in the United States.

The Liberty Street Bridge in nearby Geneva runs just 18 feet, the shortest in the country. Former Ashtabula County Engineer John Smolen designed both.

You can drive to each of them in a single day, which means you can say you stood inside the longest and the shortest covered bridges in America before lunch.

The October festival that takes over all 19 bridges

Every year on the second full weekend in October, the Ashtabula County Covered Bridge Festival spreads across all 19 bridge sites at once. The 2026 festival runs Oct. 10-11.

It’s free, family-friendly, and includes craft vendors, food booths, a parade, antique cars, and live entertainment at each location. The Harpersfield Metropark serves as one of the key sites.

If you want a driving tour map of all 19 bridges, stop by the festival office in the old county courthouse in Jefferson, where they hand out free maps.

What the bridge looks like when the trees turn

Come back in October and the park transforms. The hardwood forest along the Grand River goes red, orange, and yellow, and the bridge sits right in the middle of it.

The pedestrian walkway gives you a direct view down the river, toward the wooded bluffs and the water moving over the dam below.

The wood-and-steel combination makes the Harpersfield bridge one of the most photographed in Ohio, and autumn light on both materials at once is the reason.

Most people stop on the walkway for longer than they planned.

Finding the bridge from the interstate

The bridge sits at 1122 Harpersfield Road, Geneva, Ohio 44041, about a 15-minute drive from Geneva-on-the-Lake and roughly an hour east of Cleveland.

From Interstate 90, take the Route 534 exit toward Geneva, head south to Route 307, turn right heading west, then take the first left to the bridge.

The park is dog-friendly and free to enter any day of the year.

If you want to extend the trip, the Mechanicsville, Middle Road, State Road, and Netcher Road bridges are all within a short drive.

Visit the Harpersfield Covered Bridge Metropark in Ohio

You can pull into the Harpersfield Covered Bridge Metropark any day of the year at no charge. The park sits at 1122 Harpersfield Road, Geneva, Ohio 44041.

Fishing, kayaking, wading, birding, and picnicking are all available on site, and the seasonal gift and bait shop on the north side of the bridge covers your fishing needs.

Pavilions with electric hookups and full restroom facilities are on the grounds. The official website for Ashtabula County Metroparks has current hours and seasonal details.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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