In January 1861, citizens of West Hempfield and Rapho Townships petitioned for a bridge at the place where the public highway leading from the Marietta pike to the village of Maytown crossed near the lands of Henry Copenhoeffer and John K. Forry, because the ford there was more than ordinarily deep and was frequently rendered impassable by ice and high waters. County Commissioners finally awarded the contract for the bridge to Elias McMellen on June 14, 1869, possibly after delay caused by the Civil War. McMellen had enlisted in 1861, was wounded three times, and after mustering out and returning to Lancaster in 1865 resumed bridge building. He built nearly a dozen covered bridges across Lancaster County, and Forry's Mill Bridge was built as a single-span wooden double Burr arch design at a cost of $2,969.
