BRIDGESPOTTING

Chapter 6 of my book, Bridgespotting: A Guide to Bridges that Connect People, Places, and Times, focused on how a connection of bridge with some cultural phenomenon, such as a book, movie, painting, or musical composition can generate substantial tourist interest in visiting the bridge. The enormous popularity of the book and movie on the Bridges of Madison County, which was really a romance novel that had nothing to do with bridges, has created a substantial tourist industry in Winterset, a small town about 30 miles south of Des Moines, Iowa.

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As covered bridges, the Bridges of Madison County are about the same as any other covered bridges, maybe a little less so. The number of them is from three to seven, depending on how you want to count them. Three of them, Roseman, Hogback, and Holliwell, are historic, wooden covered bridges, still in their original locations and located within eight to ten miles of Winterset, the county seat of Madison County. Cedar Bridge was also a wooden covered bridge located near Winterset, but was burned down in 2002, rebuilt in 2004, and re-burned in 2017. Cutler-Donahoe Bridge is a wooden covered bridge that was moved from its original location to Winterset City Park in 1970. Stone Bridge, also located in Winterset City Park, is just that, not a covered bridge. Imes Covered Bridge is a wooden covered bridge still in its original location, but it is located about 15 miles from Winterset.

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The bridges are generally shorter than the covered bridges found in New England. They are fairly uniform in appearance - red-sided, with no windows. They are historic, having construction dates ranging from 1870 to 1884. They are located a convenient distance of less than 30 miles from Des Moines, not a major tourist destination, but at least a substantial-sized city. In addition, because they are situated in a cluster, they can all be visited within a single afternoon.

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All of these features suggest that these bridges should receive some level of tourist attention. However, the level of interest far exceeds that which would be warranted without the book in 1992, and the movie in 1995. When I visited in 2017, these were not just the most prominent covered bridge attractions in the United States. These are probably among the most visited bridges, of any kind, in the United States. In the middle of Iowa.

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The bridges are actually presented to the public in a way that encourages tourist visits. Each has a parking lot big enough for 10 or 20 cars, and most of them have metal historical placards describing the history of the bridge. The Roseman Bridge, the most important of the bridges in the book, even has a gift shop. As you can see in the photos, each of the bridges had several people visiting when I was there. On a random summer afternoon, you can visit them and expect to see carloads of tourists coming and going. Not hundreds of people, like you will see on the Golden Gate or Brooklyn bridges. There will be a few people, all taking photographs, when you first arrive. They will not stay long, because the bridges are small and there is not much to see. However, as they leave, more arrive. Never more than about six, eight, or ten at a time, but always being replaced by more, all day long. In case you are thinking these are local people, look at the license plates in the parking lots – Texas, Missouri, New York, Minnesota, Wisconsin, California, and New Jersey. Then look at the graffiti inscriptions on the wood-plank sides inside the bridges – quotes from the book, testimonials to lost love, poems from Spain and Germany, and messages written in Asian languages.  I don’t consider myself to be a big fan of the book or movie, but I am interested in the reasons that people visit bridges as tourists, and Madison County is undeniable.