The 1857 Humpback Covered Bridge in Alleghany County, Virginia.  Humpback Bridge is one of the few remaining covered bridges in the United States that was built higher in the middle than on either end; hence the name "humpback". Built in 1857, Humpback Bridge is also the oldest remaining covered bridge in the state of Virginia.  The bridge spans a tributary of the Jackson River known as Dunlap Creek and is 4 feet higher in the center than at either end. 

It was the fourth bridge built across Dunlap Creek in Alleghany County. The James River and Kanawha Turnpike, which built the first bridge over the creek in 1820, chose to build a covered bridge in 1857. That bridge survived the Civil War and various floods, in part because it had no support pier in the center, which could be washed away in the major floods of 1877, 1913, and 2016.

A steel truss bridge was built at the site in 1929, and the Humpback Bridge stopped carrying vehicle traffic. It was leased to a nearby farmer who used it in the 1930s and 1940s as a hay storage barn. In the 1950s, the Covington Business and Professional Women's Club mobilized public support and funding for the Virginia Department of Highways to restore it.

The Humpback Bridge is the only Virginia bridge designated by the US Department of the Interior as a National Historic Landmark. The only other covered bridge in the United States with an arched multiple kingpost truss, the Ponn Humpback Covered Bridge in Ohio, burned down in 2013. 

Length of largest span:  83 feet
Total length:  106.5 feet

Humpback Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 1, 1969. 

Located at:  N37 48.031   W80 02.825       -       WGCB #46-03-01

Photographed in September of 2021

Photos by Millard Farmer