Drift Creek Bridge

The Drift Creek Bridge is a covered bridge in Lincoln County in the U.S. state of Oregon. Built in 1914, the structure originally carried Drift Creek County Road over Drift Creek.[2] The creek flows into Siletz Bay of the Pacific Ocean south of Lincoln City.[3]

Drift Creek Bridge
Original Drift Creek Bridge over Drift Creek near Lincoln City. Photo by James B. Norman for the Historic American Engineering Record.
Drift Creek Bridge is located in Oregon
Drift Creek Bridge
Drift Creek Bridge is located in the United States
Drift Creek Bridge
Coordinates44°59′35.1″N 123°53′11.2″W
Built1914 (2000)
Architectural styleHowe truss
NRHP reference No.79002106[1]
Significant dates
ListedNovember 29, 1979
Removed from NRHPJuly 21, 1998

The original bridge, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the ocean, once carried the main north–south route along the coast. Newer bridges later carried most of the north–south traffic and, after a concrete bridge bypassed the Drift Creek Bridge in the 1960s, Lincoln County preserved it as a pedestrian crossing and a monument to 19th-century pioneers. In 1988, however, county officials closed the bridge entirely after rot and insect damage made the structure unsafe.[4]

The county dismantled the bridge in 1997 and gave the timbers to Laura and Kerry Sweitz, who owned land 8 miles (13 km) north of the Drift Creek site. In 2000, the Sweitz family rebuilt the bridge over Bear Creek and granted a permanent public easement at that site.[4] Bear Creek is a tributary of the Salmon River, which it enters near Rose Lodge.[5]

The original Howe truss bridge had board-and-batten siding, arched portals, and ribbon windows along the eaves. Before being dismantled, it was the closest covered bridge to the Oregon Coast.[2] The bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979[1] and removed in 1998.[6]

See also

References
  1. "Oregon National Register List" (PDF). Oregon City County Management Association. November 10, 2005. p. 21. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 23, 2016. Retrieved January 23, 2016.
  2. Smith, Dwight A.; Norman, James B.; Dykman, Pieter T. (1989) [1986]. Historic Highway Bridges of Oregon (2nd ed.). Portland: Oregon Historical Society Press. p. 164. ISBN 0-87595-205-4.
  3. "United States Topographic Map: Drift Creek". United States Geological Survey. Retrieved January 23, 2016 – via Acme Mapper.
  4. "Drift Creek (Bear Creek) Covered Bridge" (PDF). Oregon Department of Transportation. Retrieved January 23, 2016.
  5. "United States Topographic Map: Bear Creek". United States Geological Survey. Retrieved January 23, 2016 – via Acme Mapper.
  6. "Weekly list of actions taken on properties [on the National Register of Historic Places]: 7/20/98 through 7/24/98". National Park Service. July 31, 1998. Retrieved March 5, 2016.
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