details

Documenting North America's past & present covered bridges

Home

Swann or Joy, Blount 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: AL/01-05-05
County: Blount County
Township: Cleveland
Town/Village:
Bridge Name: Swann or Joy
Crosses: Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River
Truss type: Town
Spans: 3
Length: 305'
Roadway Width: 10'
Built: 1933
Builder: Zelma C. & Forrest Tidwell
When Lost: standing
Cause:
Latitude: N33 59.855
Longitude: W086 36.089
See a map of the area
Topographic map of the area
Directions: 0.8 miles south-southwest of jct US231/AL53 on AL79 (south) then 1.0 miles right on Swann Bridge Rd.

Swann or Joy Bridge, Cleveland, Blount County, AL Built 1933
Bill Caswell Photo, August 2002

Swann or Joy Bridge, Cleveland, Blount County, AL Built 1933
Richard Donovan Collection

Swann or Joy Bridge, Cleveland, Blount County, AL Built 1933
Bill Caswell Photo, October 23, 2013

Swann or Joy Bridge, Cleveland, Blount County, AL Built 1933
Bill Caswell Photo, July 14, 2009

Swann or Joy Bridge after 2012 Reconstruction, Cleveland, Blount County, AL Built 1933
Jim Smedley Photo, March 2013

Swann or Joy Bridge, Cleveland, Blount County, AL Built 1933
Todd Clark Collection

Comments:
Closed to vehicular traffic. The spans are 104.5', 99', and 101.5'. The Swann Covered Bridge was built in 1933. It is 324-foot long and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 20, 1981. It is currently the longest-existing covered bridge in Alabama. The bridge was built by a crew led by Zelmer C. Tidwell and his uncle Forrest Tidwell, over a scenic gorge of the Locust Fork on property owned by the Swann Farm. It was originally called the 'Joy Covered Bridge', as the bridge connected Cleveland with the nearby community of Joy. The bridge was restored by the Blount County Commission in 1979. After the 385-foot Nectar Covered Bridge (also located in Blount County) burned down in 1993, the Swann Covered Bridge became the longest covered bridge existing in Alabama. After a routine inspection, the Swann Covered Bridge was closed in 2009 due to unsafe conditions. Following necessary repairs and upgrades, the Swann Covered Bridge was reopened to motor vehicle traffic on October 22, 2012.

Sources:
List of Alabama Covered Bridges compiled in July 1953 by Richard Sanders Allen, NSPCB Archives
National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges. World Guide to Covered Bridges, 2021, page 1