Red Oak Covered Bridge in Meriwether County is one of the points on this Meriwether-Pike County driving tour.

This 55-mile route begins at Warm Springs, Georgia on SR 85. It continues north to Gay and then moves west on the SR 109 spur back to Gay.  From Gay, the route extends eastbound along Flat Shoals Road across the Flint River and turns southwest on SR 18 to Molena. The route follows SR 18 back to SR 85 south of Woodbury to Manchester and proceeds to follow SR 190 back to Warm Springs.

During the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s, President Roosevelt came to Warm Springs in hopes that the therapeutic warm springs would help improve his polio-stricken legs.  He built a home in Warm Springs, the Little White House, which is now operated as a state historic site.

The Meriwether-Pike County Scenic Byway offers several other attractions, including the Red Oak Covered Bridge, the Oakland Baptist Church and Jones Mill, where a large gristmill and millpond are the only reminders of a once-thriving farm community.  In May and October, the Cotton Pickin’ Fair and the Great Gay Marketplace attract thousands from around the Southeast.

The Euharlee or Lowery Bridge spanning Euharlee Creek in Bartow County was built in 1886 and named after Daniel Lowery, a prominent miller in the area. An earlier bridge, built on the same spot was swept downstream during a flood. Lowery helped the community rebuild the bridge by quarrying the fieldstone for the piers from his farmlands. Until the bridge was completed, he operated a ferry across the stream for travelers and farmers who needed the services of his corn mill and cotton gin on the creek bank.

The style of the bridge is Town Lattice, a design patented in 1820 by Ithiel Town of Connecticut. Town promoted his design throughout the Carolinas, and soon after that, Georgia bridge builders began using it. Because of its simplicity and strength, a Town Lattice Bridge could be “built by the mile and cut off by the yard.”

Deep-set stone piers and concrete abutments, added later yield the first clue to the bridge’s rugged, well-planned design. Measuring from pier to pier, the bridge is one span of 116 feet. Sides are roughly weatherboarded. The lower curtain extends below the roadbed level. Tin sheeting has replaced the original wood shingles on the gable roof. (more…)