Elder's Mill Covered Bridge

Elder's Mill Covered Bridge near Watkinsville, Georgia. The bridge was originally built in 1897 to span Call's Creek for a road connecting Athens and Watkinsville, at which point it presumably had a different name, and relocated here to Rose Creek, just upstream from Elder's Mill, in 1924. (Call's Creek is a tributary of the Middle Oconee River; Rose Creek flows into the combined Oconee River below the confluence of the Middle and Upper Oconee.)

Elder's Mill itself, a three-storey wooden frame building, was built circa 1900 and ceased operating in 1941.

Except for some steel guardrails strategically protecting the vertical supports and for the metal roof, the bridge appears to be built entirely of wood, with wooden pegs holding the interior latticework together. The result is strikingly beautiful.

The land through which this stretch of Rose Creek flows is about as pretty as any I've seen, and the creek itself was running clear and cold.

They don't build 'em like this anymore...