Whites Bridge

Whites Bridge spanned the Flat River near Smyrna, Michigan, as a covered Brown truss bridge that served a crossing tied to the White family since the early settlement period. The present historic bridge replaced earlier spans from 1840 and about 1856, the latter destroyed in 1869. Built by Jared N. Bresee and Joseph H. Walker in just 84 days with second-hand lumber, it preserved an uncommon nineteenth-century timber design and remained in regular use for generations. Long regarded as Michigan’s oldest covered bridge still retaining original structural parts, it was destroyed by arson in 2013, then rebuilt and reopened by early 2021.

Michigan · United States