Rating:
4 votes

Swann Covered Bridge

Blount County, Alabama
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Photos 

Overview

Photo taken by James McCray

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Map 

View Uglybridges.com report

Facts 

Overview
Covered bridge over Locust Fork River on Swann Bridge Road
Location
Blount County, Alabama
Status
Open to all traffic
History
Built 1933; renovated 2012
Builder
- Zelmer & Forrest Tidwell
Design
Covered Lattice through truss
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 75.1 ft.
Total length: 330.1 ft.
Deck width: 16.1 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 13.0 ft.
Recognition
Posted to the National Register of Historic Places on August 20, 1981
Also called
Joy Covered Bridge
Approximate latitude, longitude
+33.99750, -86.60150   (decimal degrees)
33°59'51" N, 86°36'05" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
16/536801/3761950 (zone/easting/northing)
USGS topographic map
Cleveland
Inventory numbers
NRHP 81000123 (National Register of Historic Places reference number)
WGCB 01-05-05 (World Guide to Covered Bridges number)
AL 1644 (Alabama bridge number)
BH 10079 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection (as of 11/2008)
Deck condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Appraisal: Structurally deficient
Sufficiency rating: 21.7 (out of 100)
Average daily traffic (as of 2008)
265

Categories 

Alabama (498)
Blount County, Alabama (19)
Built 1933 (468)
Built during 1930s (8,551)
Covered (925)
Lattice through truss (198)
Lattice truss (265)
NR-listed (2,354)
One-lane traffic (7,112)
Open (28,320)
 Owned by county (16,492)
Span length 75-100 feet (4,719)
Structurally deficient (16,683)
Through truss (9,211)
Total length 250-500 feet (3,371)
Town lattice truss (116)
Truss (23,575)
Wooden deck (5,398)
Zelmer & Forrest Tidwell (4)

Update Log 

  • December 24, 2012: New photos from Johnny C Barrett
  • August 24, 2011: Updated by Tony Dillon: Bridge currently closed
  • August 24, 2011: New photos from Ben Tate
  • December 3, 2010: Updated by Anthony Dillon: Added builder
  • September 30, 2008: New photos from James McCray
  • January 31, 2008: New photos from James McCray

Sources 

  • James McCray - jamesinslocomb [at] yahoo [dot] com
  • HAER AL-201 - Swann Bridge
  • Tony Dillon - spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com
  • Ben Tate - benji5221 [at] yahoo [dot] com
  • Dale Travis Covered Bridge List
  • Johnny C Barrett - jcarsonbarrett [at] gmail [dot] com
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Comments 

Swann Covered Bridge
Posted September 1, 2011, by Ben Tate

Good news for the Blount County, AL, covered bridges. They got a federal grant to be renovated and opened to vehicular traffic again. Out of the 3 remaining covered bridges in this county, one is the highest covered bridge over a US waterway(Horton-Mill Covered Bridge) and one is currently the longest covered bridge in Alabama at 330ft(Swann Covered Bridge). All 3 are posted to the National Register of Historic Places. Here's the article:

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/08/historic_blount_county_covered.html

Swann Covered Bridge
Posted June 7, 2011, by Tony Dillon (spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com)

I visited this and the Nectar Bridge back in the early 80's before the latter was destroyed by arson in a disgruntled act of foolishness.

These spans are an important part of Alabama history that deserves to be retained.

Swann Covered Bridge
Posted June 7, 2011, by Sharon Rose Murphree (srmurphree [at] gmail [dot] com)

This bridge is closed and has been for some time. Myself and a group from Blount County, Alabama are working to have this bridge and the other two bridges in Blount County repaired and reopened. Please visit on facebook The Covered Bridges of Blount County Alabama to review our progess.

Thank you,

Sharon Rose Murphree

President

Friends of the Covered Bridges of Blount County, Alabama

Uploaded file: JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.01, 290899 bytes

Swann Covered Bridge
Posted February 7, 2009, by Randy (radyjr2212 [at] hotmail [dot] com)

This bridge is so beautiful that I dont think anyone one destroy it, and if they do may God have mercy on their soul.