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Johnson's Mill or Salt Creek, Muskingum County

If you find errors in the data please contact Bill Caswell.

If you would like to provide information on covered bridges that no longer exist from your state, or adopt a state to work on, we would certainly welcome your assistance. Please contact Trish Kane for more information.

Inventory Number: OH/35-60-31
County: Muskingum County
Township: Perry
Town/Village:
Bridge Name: Johnson's Mill or Salt Creek
Crosses: Salt Creek
Truss type: Smith Single
Spans: 1
Length: 87'
Roadway Width:
Built: 1876
Builder:
When Lost: standing
Cause:
Latitude: N39 59.942
Longitude: W081 50.383
See a map of the area
Topographic map of the area
Directions: 2.6 miles east of jct OH797 on US22/40, then 2.1 miles left on Arch Hill Rd. (TR82) on right side of road. East-northeast of Zanesville.

Johnson's Mill or Salt Creek Bridge, Perry, Muskingum County, OH Built 1876
Bill Caswell Photo (2005)

Johnson Mill or Salt Creek Bridge, Perry, Muskingum County, OH Built 1876
Larry Cunningham Photo

Johnson's Mill or Salt Creek Bridge, Perry, Muskingum County, OH Built 1876
Todd Clark Collection

Johnson's Mill or Salt Creek Bridge, Perry, Muskingum County, OH Built 1876
Traugott Keller Photograph, July 7, 1956, NSPCB Archives
Johnson's Mill or Salt Creek Bridge, Perry, Muskingum County, OH Built 1876
Theodore Burr Covered Bridge Resource Center Collection

Comments:
Closed, bypassed. 8-panel truss. In 1953, the county realigned a major curve in the road and bypassed the covered bridge, erecting a steel pony truss bridge just upstream. In exchange for the right-of-way, the county gave the covered bridge to an adjacent landowner who used it as a storage shed for farm machinery. In 1960, the Southern Ohio Covered Bridge Association purchased the bridge in order to preserve it. Shortly after acquiring the bridge, a group of volunteers replaced the original shake roof with corrugated metal. While this was a positive step, the structure was already deteriorating from moisture and dry rot. In 1983, the ends of the lower chords were replaced. This project, however, inadvertently led to further damage and did nothing to address previous structural problems. In 1997-98 the association, by now renamed the Ohio Historic Bridge Association, undertook a major rehabilitation project with a $54,000 ISTEA grant. While it had previously been listed as a Warren truss, additional research is now leaning towards a Smith truss classification.

Sources:
Travis, Dale. 'Ohio Covered Bridges List', updated to 25 Aug 2004, http://www.dalejtravis.com/cblist/cboh.htm (23 Sep 2004)
Wood, Miriam. Ohio Covered Bridge Index, Muskingum County
Wood, Miriam F. & Simmons, David A.. Covered Bridges: Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, 2007, pages 54-55, 63
National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges. World Guide to Covered Bridges, 2021, page 80