Lowell Covered Bridge, Oregon.
Lowell Bridge is a covered bridge in Lowell, Oregon, United States. The original bridge was built in 1907. The current bridge was built in 1945. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Before the Lowell Bridge was constructed, pioneer Amos Hyland settled on the Middle Fork Willamette River in 1874, and established the town of Lowell, which he named after his birthplace of Lowell, Maine. An accident occurred in 1945 when a truck caused major damage to the bridge. It was replaced by the current bridge, which is the widest in the state. In 1953, in preparation for the flooding expected to be caused by the Dexter Dam in two years, the entire bridge was raised 6 feet (1.8 m), and the floor replaced. Dexter Dam inundated the area, creating Dexter Reservoir, when it was completed in 1955. The engineers' water level calculations proved to be correct: the water clearance was about 2 feet (0.6 m). Original public domain image from Flickr