After 150 years, one of the few remaining historic covered bridges in the Southeast has returned to its original home.
“It is a great day for LaGrange, Troup County and our African American heritage,” said Kathryn W. Tilley, president and CEO of Visit LaGrange. “This would not have been possible without the partnership of the City of LaGrange, the Ida Cason Callaway Foundation, the Callaway Foundation, Inc., The Thread Trail, and Visit LaGrange, Inc. What an honor it was to witness the relocation of this bridge to LaGrange.”
In 1873, Horace King built the Wehadkee Covered Bridge in Troup County to carry Harmony Church Road over the Wehadkee Creek at Cofield’s Mill. King died in 1885. The next year the bridge was destroyed by a flash flood. In 1890, using the sophisticated Town Lattice-Truss design often seen in his father’s work, King’s son George constructed an exact replacement of the Wehadkee Creek Bridge. The 1965 construction of the West Point Dam would have left the bridge underwater. Callaway Gardens officials asked for 60 feet of the 110-foot bridge and placed it in front of the greenhouses at the Pine Mountain, Ga., destination in December of 1964. The Gardens started construction of the John A. Sibley Horticultural Center in 1983 and moved the bridge into a secure area with the intention of incorporating it into future development plans.
“How fortunate we are that in 2020, the perfect opportunity arose to showcase this bridge and honor the King family,” Tilley said. “This bridge is part of a larger project that we will be sharing with both residents and visitors to LaGrange very soon.”
For more information about this project or Visit LaGrange, call (706) 594-1384, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.visitlagrange.com. Visit LaGrange may be found on social media platforms using @visitlagrange.
