Our Covered/Wooden Bridge

In our town, we have a Wooden Bridge.  It's a 239-foot, 230-ton covered bridge made completely of wood.  The founder of the Bavarian Inn, Tiny Zehnder, had the bridge built in order to expand parking across the Cass River. 

Though this bridge is a modern construction built in 1979 (and remains today the largest wooden bridge built in Michigan), the architects of Graton and Associates remained faithful to traditional covered bridge timber framing techniques, utilizing a 3 span Town lattice truss system of Douglas fir. This sturdy 239' bridge accomodates automobiles and pedestrians numbering in the hundreds of thousands every year.

The man behind the construction of the bridge was Milton S. Graton of Ashland, New Hamphire, who at age 70 spent two years building Zehnder's Holz Brucke. With the help of his son, Arnold, and a grandson, Graton began the project in August of 1978 when three flat cars of timber arrived on the eastern banks of the Cass River. The trusses and floor joists were fashioned from 100,000 board feet of Douglas Fir. The flooring is comprised of 15,960 board feet of 4 inch planks. The portion receiving the greatest wear is of oak while the remaining portion is spruce. 20,000 board feet of Douglas Fir make up the rafters and the roof is shingled with cedar. An additional 4,340 board feet of pine was required for the bridge side boards.

After the 230 ton structure was completed on the east bank of the river, Graton Associates employed a system of block, capstan, comealongs and pulleys to enable two oxen to pull as much as 180 oxen could normally displace. The "pull" took place over a twelve day period ending on January 29, 1980.

We love having this landmark literally minutes from our door!