Ohio Covered Bridges - Windsor Mills

Windsor Mills Covered Bridge. 10/5/2025 dwm photo

Ashtabula County is home to a lot of covered bridges in a state with 135 of them. 

There are several counties with double digit bridges, but with 19, we decided to spend three days and nights in Ashtabula.

After a drive across Ohio, we entered Ashtabula county in its southwest corner with a route including five bridges on the west side of Ashtabula county.

The first stop was the Windsor Mills bridge near the town of Windsor where it stands in a pine forest high above Phelps creek.

There are usually wide places either side of covered bridges where you can park and get out to admire or take pictures. While I was shooting, there was a person walking across the bridge. We had seen an Amish woman earlier on West Hollow Road walking toward the bridge, so when I heard steps, I lowered my camera and said hello as she emerged from the bridge. 

Windsor Mills bridge. 10/5/25 dwm

 My wife and I spoke with her for a while, sharing that we lived in Amish country 20 years earlier. She was about our age and very friendly, telling us about life in the area.

 The bridge is yellow, which has faded, giving it a glow in the middle of a forest with the sun shining. As bridges go, yellow is an unusual color of paint, most bridges I've seen are red, white, or naturally faded down to the wood.

 Stone abutments hold the bridge on either end. One end used sandstone from a nearby quarry, while the other used rock from the creek.

 The bridge was closed to traffic in 1960 when it was bypassed, according to its Wikipedia page. The bridge was shut in the 1980s for safety reasons, then thankfully, local support engineered extensive renovation from 2002 to 2004, when it reopened to all traffic, except trucks and buses.

 All but two (South Denmark and Caine) covered bridges  in Ashtabula county are open to traffic which adds a great deal with the experience.

A Town Lattice truss supports the bridge. 10/5/25 dwm

 

There aren't many angles to shoot the bridge with its deep and narrow valley. It cuts through a thick forest on both sides, but the color and our conversation with an Amish woman made this bridge especially memorable.

 Windsor Mills

 

 Ashtabula County Ohio

 Built: 1867 with White Pine

 Style: Town Lattice truss

 Length: 120 feet over Phelps Creek

   

 

 

Approaching from the North on Warner Hallow Rd. 10/5/2025 dwm

Looking around and between the trees at the bridge. 10/5/2025 dwm

Looking from the bridge at Phelps Creek. 10/5/2025 dwm

Looking from the south, notice the center pier supporting the bridge. 10/5/2025 dwm