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Discover Georgia's
Historic Covered Bridges
The Covered Bridge Trail of Georgia, Inc. was founded in 1998 to preserve and
promote the last 15 of the many covered bridges that once existed in Georgia.
Some are still open to car traffic.
Covered Bridges Interactive Map.
Return to Covered Bridges.
Poole's Mill Bridge
is in Cumming, Georgia.
North Georgia is blessed with a wild and beautiful land. The fingers of the
foothills of the Appalachian Mountains spread over the north central part of the
State and become the watershed to the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico with
every valley nourished by lively streams. It was to this land the pioneers of
the state came to lay the foundations for their homes, mills and churches.
Because of the rugged land and poor transportation the settlements sprang-up
close together. "No more'en a mile or two apart," according to W.A. Wood. Not
many crossings by ford could be made on the wild streams and so the need for
bridges arose. - From "Covered Bridges of Georgia" by Thomas L. French, Jr. &
Edward L. French.
The site of the bridge dates back to the 1820's. The original construction of
this bridge began with a contractor who drilled all the holes in the lattice
members in the wrong place. After fitting up the pieces he realized they were in
the wrong place and abandoned the project. Work was finished by Bud Gentry but
required drilling new holes in the old members. You can still see the misplaced
holes today. Even the treads of the bridge are members that could not be used
because of the misplaced holes. Treads with holes side-by-side were to have been
used in the chords, while those with diagonally offset holes would have been
lattice members.
Though this bridge looked very beat up, structurally it was quite sound (see
Stovall Mill for a bridge that looked sound and wasn't). With the addition of a
new pier in the middle, new weatherboarding, and a new wood shingle roof, this
bridge looks as good as new.
The pier in the middle of the creek was built during the 1998 rehab to take the
sag out of the bridge and provide support. First a cofferdam was built and water
was pumped out to give a dry work area. Then the bridge was jacked up in the
middle lifting its end off of the abutment. Over a few days the bridge deformed
under its own weight and settled back onto the abutment. Incremental jacking
continued until the bridge was reasonably straight. Though it never was made
totally straight (you can see the sag a little in the picture at right) the
weatherboarding was cut straight along the bottom to hide the sag. For the sake
of authenticity the pier was given a smooth concrete finish rather than trying
to make it look like part of the original bridge by finishing it with rock
facing.
General Info County:
Forsyth Other
names: Pool's Mill
Length:
94.6 ft. Width:
14.5 ft.
Built:
1901 Builder:
Bud Gentry
Truss:
Town lattice
Stream:
Settendown Creek
Road
name: Adjacent to Poole's Mill Road Traffic:
No Parking:
Yes Picnic
area: Yes Historic
marker: Yes Owner:
Forsyth County
Directions:
From Atlanta, take I-285 to Georgia 400 north to Cumming, go 7 miles west on Hwy. 20 to Ducktown, 3 miles north to Heardsville, and 1 mile north on Poole's Mill Road. In Lake Lanier area in Northeast Mountains Travel Region. Call 770-887-6461.
County:
Forsyth
