Horton Mill Bridge
The Horton Mill Bridge is a 220 foot-long double-span covered bridge over the Calvert Prong of Locust Fork just north of Oneonta in Blount County. The bridge, built in 1935, is 70 feet above the bottom of the gorge, making it the highest covered bridge above a river in the United States.
The construction of the 14 foot-wide bridge, which replaced an earlier bridge accessing T. M. Horton's water mill complex. The bridge is of the "town truss" type. It was built in 1934-35 by "fifteen men working from sunup to sundown for a year and a half". The crew was supervised by Talmedge Horton, a descendent of T. M's, along with brothers Forrest and Zelmer C. Tidwell, who also built the Swann Bridge, Easley Bridge and Nectar Bridge which made Blount County Alabama's covered bridge capital.
The abutments rest on the rock ledges of the gorge while an intermediate pier support is built of masonry and concrete. The timbers are hand-hewn oak, felled in the valley and raised to the bridge by rope. A second timber support has been added to brace the longer span. The original wooden shingles have been replaced.
The bridge, which was the first covered bridge in the South to be added to the National Register of Historic Places is now owned by the Alabama Historical Commission. It was restored in 1974 by the AHC in cooperation with the Blount County Commission.
The Horton Mill Bridge is featured on the seal of the Blount-Oneonta Chamber of Commerce. It was photographed by Jet Lowe for the Historic American Engineering Record in 2002.
References
- Jackson, Donald C. (1984) Great American Bridges and Dams. New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-14385-5, p. 164.
- Stith, Marg G. (October 1997) "Tunnels in Time." Southern Living.
- University of Alabama Center for Public Television and Radio. Bridges to the Past.
External links
- Photos of Horton Mill Bridge on Flickr.com
- Horton Mill Bridge data page at the Historic American Engineering Survey.