Sandy Creek Covered Bridge in Missouri is one of three historic Howe-truss bridges in the state. The original bridge, named for the creek it spans, was built in 1872 by John Hathaway Morse. It measured 74 feet, 6 inches long, 18 feet, 10 inches wide, and had an entrance height of 13 feet. Its construction grew out of a county building program begun in Jefferson County after the Civil War. In 1869, work began on the Hillsboro and Lemay Ferry Gravel Road to connect Hillsboro, the Jefferson County seat, with St. Louis County, and by spring 1872 the road had reached the vicinity of the Sandy Creek crossing. On May 28, 1872, Morse, president of the House Springs, Big River Valley Macadamized and Gravel Road Company, proposed spanning the creek with a wooden bridge and received the contract on his bid of $2,000. High water destroyed the bridge in May 1886, and the county court ordered it rebuilt that August. Henry Steffin received the rebuilding contract and used half of the original timber to complete the reconstruction at a cost of $899. By the late 1800s, Lemay Ferry Road had become a major roadway through Jefferson County. In 1967, the Missouri General Assembly declared all remaining covered bridges in the state to be state historic sites under the care of the state park system. At that time, Sandy Creek Covered Bridge had a roof of galvanized corrugated metal, unpainted replacement white pine side panels, and concrete piers in the creek bed. Jefferson County released the bridge to the state of Missouri in 1968, and on July 8, 1970, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places and later designated a state historic site. A major restoration completed in the summer of 1984 returned the bridge to its original appearance. It is now open only to pedestrian traffic and is administered and maintained by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources' Division of State Parks. The bridge's Howe truss uses diagonal wood compression members about 6 inches square and vertical pairs of wrought iron rods 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Two trusses, about 76 feet long and 15 feet apart, span the creek between stone abutments and are braced horizontally beneath the roadway and overhead.