Les Jones

East Tennessee > Dandridge, TN and Tennessee's Covered Bridges

We spent Friday afternoon on Douglas Lake in Dandridge at a company picnic. (Thanks to the Emerts for having us.) Dandridge is Tennessee's second oldest town, after Jonesborough. On the way back I wanted to drive through downtown Dandridge just to see what was there. That's how this goofy trip started.

We went through downtown Dandridge. On the far side Melissa spotted an old metal truss bridge, which she likes, so we drove over the bridge. It's an old-style scary bridge that's barely big enough for two cars. On the other side we spotted a boat ramp at a pretty spot down by the lake, and drove down there for a look-see.

Sitting down by the water we planned our next move. Melissa thought the road we had turned on would take us to the Bush Beans factory, so we kept going down that road away from Dandridge. Sure enough, we found the Bush plant. We were far enough along that we figured we might as well keep going down 411 rather than turning back. Melissa figured it would bring us out in Sevierville.

On the way down 411 we saw a sign for a covered bridge. That floored both of us - how come we had never heard of this? The only covered bridge we had ever seen in Tennessee was the one in Elizabethton.

We took the turn and found a beautiful road and a lovely barn. The covered bridge wasn't far. It's been rebuilt in the recent past, but it's got character. Unfortunately my camera picked that moment to run out of battery power. You know those people who say your camera should be able to use regular batteries so that you can get some from a convenience store if you run out of power? Those people are right.

You can see a picture of the Harrisburg Bridge at TDOT's covered bridges of Tennessee. According to TDOT the Harrisburg bridge is one of only four historical covered bridges in the state that still stand, and one of only three that are still passable. The other three are the Elizabethton Bridge in Carter County, the Parks Bridge in Obion County, and the Bible Bridge in Greene County.

Some other covered bridges were lost relatively recently. Brice Bridge in Knox County was burned "by Halloween pranksters" in 1968. The Paint Rock Creek Bridge met a similar fate in 1980.

Instead of turning back after the bridge we kept going in our new direction. We got a little bit lost and had to ask someone who was out mowing their yard for directions. We went through some place called Richardson's Cove and then finally through the town of Pittman Center and wound up coming out on 321 above Gatlinburg, near the Greenbriar section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

We left the lake at 7:30. Normally it would take an hour to get home, but we didn't pull into the driveway until 11:00 that night. It was the long way and the fun way.

LATER: Kevin Emert writes:

If you're in to "covered bridges," here is one that is close to the Emerts heart, located just outside Gatlinburg in the Pittman Center community and is the "newest covered bridge in Tennessee" (built in 2000), but since it is built where my father grew up and played in the river, it's kinda special.

Local artist Jim Gray also painted a picture of this bridge (although his
caption spelled the name wrong :-( ) Needless to say, we've got it hanging
on our wall at home!

See also:
- Types of Bridges by Richman Galleries
- Ohio Barns' State-by-state Listing of Covered Bridges