Holliwell Bridge, Spanning Middle River at Holliwell Bridge Road (now bypassed) (changed from Spanning Middle River at county road), Winterset, Madison County, IA

See Historical Overview of Iowa Bridges, HAER No. IA-88, which provides a unified historical context of bridges included in Iowa Historic Bridges Recording Project I and II.

Significance: Madison County has the greatest number of covered wooden bridges surviving in Iowa. The technology of timber bridges predominated in Iowa until the widespread adoption of iron trusses in the 1870s. The Holliwell Bridge uses a Town lattice truss with a superimposed arch for added stiffness. The roof and siding, while giving a romantic appearance, were added to prevent deterioration of the timber structure. Among the Madison county bridges, the Holliwell Bridge is the longest span, and an excellent example of the covered timber bridge in Iowa.

Holliwell Bridge is one of nineteen covered bridges built in Madison County, Iowa, in the late nineteenth century, and the longest of five that survive.

Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N235

Survey number: HAER IA-64

Building/structure dates: 1880 Initial Construction

Building/structure dates: 1977 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1995 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: 1980 Subsequent Work

National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 76000789

vehicular bridges covered bridges town lattice trusses transportation queen post trusses winterset iowa holliwell bridge holliwell bridge middle middle river holliwell bridge road county road winterset madison county iowa justine christianson federal highway administration george k foster clayton b fraser historic american engineering record iowa department of transportation harvey p jones christopher marston ithiel town ultra high resolution high resolution library of congress national register of historic places

1969 - 1980

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/

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