It won’t be completed, as hoped, by the end of the year. But the Bridgeport Covered Bridge replacement project, which started about a year and a half ago, is progressing well…

Doug Moon, the chair of the Save Our Bridge Campaign Committee, says it’s now estimated that the bridge will reopen next spring, or about ten years after it was closed to pedestrian traffic, due to stability concerns. And he says it will very closely resemble the original bridge that opened in 1862…

The final pricetag for the project was six-point-nine million dollars and funded by State Parks money. Officials say they look forward to many future generations of visitors experiencing what it was like to cross the Yuba River on this unique bridge, that carried people on their way to the gold and silver fields in California and Nevada.