At this location, two bridges successively spanned the Hocking River to carry State Route 144 traffic between the Village of Coolville and the railroad at Coolville Station on the east side. The first, a wooden covered bridge built in 1840, had an unusual double-wide design for two lanes of traffic and stood beside the mill and dam built by village founder Asahel Cooley in 1815. After 90 years of service, it was replaced in 1930 as demands for better highways and stronger bridges increased. The second bridge was a reinforced concrete open spandrel rib arch bridge designed by D.H. Overman and C.P. Smith of the Ohio Department of Highway’s Bureau of Bridges. It reflected Art Deco and Art Modern design elements, including repetitive rectangular balustrade segments and curved stylistic projections on the supports, in keeping with the period’s City Beautiful Movement, which incorporated aesthetic improvements to counter negative aspects of industrialization. The five-span, 345 foot long bridge remained a prominent centerpiece of the Hocking River Valley until 2006, after serious flooding and landslides in January 2005 critically damaged State Route 144 on the east side of the river and forced its relocation to the current alignment.