DOVER, Ky. (LEX 18) — You never know where Kentucky's back roads just might take you.
It's like a bridge to the past. Some might say that quite literally.
"Dover Wooden Covered Bridge, yes sir," said Mason County Judge Executive Owen McNeill while standing in front of said bridge.
It's a bridge Ann Porter would rather not look at.
"It makes me very sad to see this bridge in the condition it's in," she said.
There are overgrown weeds, cobwebs, rusty guardrails, and traffic cones that aren't as orange as they once were. No traffic has moved across that bridge since the 1990s, according to officials in the county.
"We just feel like that it's time that we get this bridge fixed," said Porter.
Porter says there are 11 covered bridges left in the state of Kentucky. This is the oldest, built in 1835. Six of the other 11 are in counties neighboring Mason County.
"I remember on my sixth birthday, having a party at Dover School and coming home and going through the bridge and then looking back and there was a full moon," Porter recalled.
"At some point, we have to take action for historically significant items such as the Dover Wooden Covered Bridge," said McNeill.
They hope the state will contribute somewhere between $1.2 and $1.5 million to help restore Kentucky's oldest covered bridge.
"A lot of times, assets like that are just a little large for a smaller county, such as Mason County, to really be able to take on," McNeill said.
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