Iowa All Over: The bridges that inspired a love story

MADISON COUNTY — What keeps people coming back to the Bridges of Madison County, year after year? Romance, said Kayla Hawkins, tourism director at the Madison County Chamber of Commerce.

'I think without a doubt it's probably the love story that the bridges seem to have,' Hawkins said.

That love story is the tale of a married Italian war bride named Francesca Johnson who fell in love with a photographer named Robert Kincaid. In the story, Kincaid was on assignment in Madison County photographing the covered bridges in the area.

Their story was first told in the 1992 best-selling book by Robert James Waller, 'The Bridges of Madison County.' The book was made into a movie, released three years later in 1995. Johnson was played by Meryl Streep and Kincaid was played by Clint Eastwood.

More than 20 years after the book was released, people still come to Madison County to see the covered bridges that inspired the love story.

There initially were 20 covered bridges, said Heather Riley, executive director of the Madison County Chamber of Commerce. Most of them were built in the 1880s.

'The reason they are covered is because the county supervisors realized it was much less expensive to replace the sides and the roof of the covered bridges versus the actual floor,' Riley said.

The bridges allowed farmers to bring supplies to town to sell, Riley explained. As agricultural equipment got larger, the bridges were used less for that purpose.

The bridges are named after the farmers who owned the piece of property closest to each bridge. They were used up until the 1960s and 1970s, she said.

Community members developed a 'concentrated effort to keep them preserved,' Riley said. 'Even now, part of the Madison County brand is those covered bridges.'

Today, there are six remaining covered bridges — Roseman, Holliwell, Cedar, Cutler-Donahoe, Hogback and Imes.

The Cedar Bridge, built in 1883 by Benton Jones, is 77 feet long and is now the only bridge open to vehicles. It was built over the Cedar Creek, north of Winterset on what is now U.S. Highway 169. In Waller's book, the Cedar Bridge is where Francesca meets Robert to help him take photos, according to the chamber on its website. Cedar Bridge is the one on the book's cover.

It was renovated in 1998, but the bridge was destroyed by an arsonist in September 2002. A replica of the original bridge was built from the original plans and dedicated in October 2004, according to the chamber.

The Holliwell Bridge is the longest-covered bridge at 110 feet. The approaches to the bridge add an additional 70 feet. In 1880, Holliwell Bridge replaced the original open wood frame bridge that was first constructed in 1855.

The bridge crossed Middle River on the Winterset Indianola Road, considered the main highway carrying pioneers heading west through Winterset, according to a description at the bridge.

It was renovated in 1995 and also featured in the movie.

Winterset, where the chamber of commerce office is located, is two and a half hours southwest of Cedar Rapids. The city also is home to the John Wayne Birthplace Museum.

'It keeps our community alive,' Riley said.

The chamber annually hosts the Madison County Covered Bridge Festival in the second week of October. The year after the movie was released, the festival — now in its 46th year — saw visitors from as far away as Japan, Riley said.

'We still get people in here every day of the week from all over the world that want to see covered bridges and just experience being out there,' Riley said.

'For the locals, it gave the people that live here a new appreciation because not every community has covered bridges. For us, they're such a part of our landscape and our cultural heritage.'

More on Winterset

Winterset, in Madison County, has a population of 5,141, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2014 estimate. Winterset was founded in 1849. Some of the major employers in town include the Winterset Community School District, Madison County Health Care system and Hy-Vee.