Since the 1800s, the Cuyahoga Valley has offered people from nearby cities a place to relax in nature, and local efforts to preserve that tradition led to the creation of Cuyahoga Valley National Park in 1974. The park protects open countryside, a canal that helped build the nation, and the river that sparked the Clean Water Act. The story of the Everett Road Covered Bridge reflects transportation and recreation in the valley, as horses and wagons and later automobiles used the original bridge built in the late 1870s, while the reconstructed bridge now carries only foot traffic and is regularly visited by horseback riders, contra dancers, environmental education students, and photographers.
