Kent County's two historic covered bridges

Kent County is home to two beautiful covered bridges, both built just after the Civil War, and both using the same sturdy wooden “Brown truss” design. The Ada Covered Bridge, built in 1867, crosses the Thornapple River in the village of Ada. It’s led a dramatic life: heavy snow caved in its roof in 1979, and then a fire destroyed it — but the community rebuilt it the next year (the Amway company, headquartered right there in Ada, stepped in to help). Today it’s painted barn-red and open only to people on foot, linking downtown Ada to a riverside park. Over near Lowell, the Fallasburg Covered Bridge has spanned the Flat River since 1871, in a tiny preserved 1800s village. Built by a bridge-maker named Jared Bresee, it’s one of only a few historic covered bridges in all of Michigan that you can still drive a car across — and it still wears an old warning sign: “$5 Fine For Riding or Driving on This Bridge Faster Than a Walk.” Both bridges are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

You can visit both: the Ada Covered Bridge is at 7490 Thornapple River Drive SE in Ada; the Fallasburg Covered Bridge is in Fallasburg Park, about five miles north of Lowell.