Historical Marker · No. 390
Bridgeport Historic District
Penn Valley, Nevada County · California
Erected by Native Sons of the Golden West, California State Parks Foundation, and California State Parks, 2014
Two bronzes stand here, fifty years apart, and the claim grows between them. The 1964 plaque calls this the longest single-span wood-covered bridge in the United States. The 2014 plaque, standing a few feet away, calls it the longest in the world. Neither cites anything. What both get right is the reason it exists: a toll road company needed to move freight to the northern mines and over the Sierra to the Comstock, and a river was in the way.
What the plaque says
Built in 1862 by David J. Wood with lumber from his mill in Sierra County, the covered bridge was part of the Virginia Turnpike Company toll road that served the northern mines and the Nevada Comstock Lode. The associated ranch and resources for rest and repair provided a necessary lifeline across the Sierra Nevada. Utilizing a unique combination truss and arch construction, Bridgeport Covered Bridge is one of the oldest housed spans in the western United States and the longest single span, wooden covered bridge in the world.
Where it stands
39.29197, -121.19511 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Nevada City — 9.7 miGaslamps, brick storefronts, and the Nisenan who are still fighting to be recognized on their own ground.
- Empire Mine State Historic Park — 10 miThe oldest, deepest, richest hard-rock gold mine in California, with 367 miles of flooded tunnels underneath.
- Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park — 16 miA canyon washed out of a mountain by water cannon, and the lawsuit that ended hydraulic mining.