Mary's River Covered Bridge, about four miles northeast of Chester, Illinois, was built in 1854 as part of a plank toll road connecting Chester with Bremen. The route helped carry agricultural products into Chester, then an important Mississippi River port. This Burr truss bridge later passed from private toll road use to Randolph County in the early 1870s and continued serving road traffic until 1930. The State of Illinois acquired it in 1936 for preservation. Now standing in a park and picnic area, it is especially significant as the only surviving covered bridge in Southern Illinois.