"Covered Bridge Capital of the West.".

Oregon has 51 covered bridges, more than any other state west of the Mississippi. The first bridge built in 1851 near Oregon City no longer exists. Chambers Bridge, a 78-foot span built in Cottage Grove in 1925 to carry logs to a mill, is the only covered railroad bridge remaining in Oregon.

Covered bridges were built to protect the wooden trusses from weather. The design increases the life span of a bridge from the typical ten years to eighty or more.