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Holliwell Covered Bridge

Madison County, US

Holliwell Covered Bridge

Holliwell Bridge is a wooden covered bridge in Madison County, Iowa. It was built over the Middle River in 1880. The Holliwell Bridge is located two miles southeast of Winterset over the Middle River. Built by Harvey P. Jones and George K. Foster for a cost of $1,180, it is the longest of the six re

maining covered bridges in Madison County, spanning 110 feet with a total length of 159 feet. It is also the longest remaining timber bridge in the state of Iowa. The bridge is no longer in use, but was renovated and restored in 1995 at a cost of $225,000 ($475,000 today). It is featured in the film The Bridges of Madison County. The Holliwell Bridge is in its original location but supporting abutments were often washed out by flooding, so the angle at which the bridge crossed Middle River has been changed. (Early county bridges were built on timber piles or stone masonry abutments, but in 1884, the county began purchasing large quantities of tubular piers from nationally-known bridge fabricating companies. According to county records, the Holliwell Bridge originally had timber pile piers.) The Holliwell now consists of a timber Town lattice truss with a superimposed arch, timber stringer...

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