It’s over Sinking Creek in Giles County in Newport.  It was built in 1912 on private property and is not open to the public nor to traffic.

            Fortunately, the present owners were available and were contacted by phone.  Their input was invaluable in tracing his family’s ownership of the farm and the covered bridge.

            James Claude Link, Jr., said that when his grandfather, Samuel A. Bradley bought the farm he lived in Lindside, West Virginia only about 35 miles from Newport.  He married Della Bradley, a first cousin, whose parents owned a farm in Newport.

            Samuel bought his farm in 1907.  His property was on both sides of Sinking Creek and both sides of Mountain Lake Road.  The covered bridge, built in 1912, provided easier access to these sections.  They lived all their married life on their farm.  Both of them died in 1956.  The property passed (including the covered bridge that had been left in place in 1949 when a new concrete bridge was built) to their children, Ray Bradley and Ida Bradley Link, who had been married to James Claude Link since 1924.  Ray died in 1957 and his wife and two children inherited his half of the farm.  James Claude’s son, James Claude Link, Jr., who had married Betsy Ross in 1957, bought the other half of the farm from Ray’s heirs.  In 1965 James Claude died and in 1982 Ida died, leaving her half of the farm to James Barry Link, son of James Claude Link, Jr., and Betsy Ross Link.  Now these three are the present owners and the name Link’s Farm Covered Bridge is attributed to them.  Previously it was called the Bradley Bridge.

            When the road was realigned and a new concrete bridge was built, the covered bridge was left in place for the Bradleys.  Now a dirt road leads from Route 700 to each end of the covered bridge.  The north end leads to the old Bradley home now used as a storehouse.  The south end leads to an elevated approach to the bridge and passes the Link’s home.

            The bridge is only 49’-0” long and 12’-2” wide.  Earlier pictures depict a straight top over the portal.  Now it has an inverted “V”.  It appears to have a modified Queenspost truss with a segmental arch.  Major repairs were made in 1995.  Repairs are on-going.  Mr. Link uses the bridge daily to access other parts of his farm, however, no other vehicle is allowed.  Pedestrians view the bridge from Route 700.

            Mr. Link shared some interesting tidbits.  He says that the bridge has been set on fire twice, vandalized on several occasions, that Paul Walker who lived in Newport helped his father make the steel bolts for the bridge trusses and that J. Maurice Puckett was the overseer of public roads that built all of the covered bridges in the Newport area.

            This bridge meets qualifications for inclusion as an historic structure, but it has not been recorded with the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission nor has it been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.  With this done it could possibly qualify for state or federal grants that would possibly provide funding for future maintenance.  There is, however an Historic American Survey Inventory form with photographs included in the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission File.