Stewart Bridge is a 60-foot Howe truss covered bridge spanning the Row River near Cottage Grove in Lane County, Oregon. Built in 1930, it is the shortest of the covered bridges along the Row River corridor and sits at a picturesque crossing where the river runs shallow over a gravel bed flanked by alder and cottonwood.
Despite its compact size, Stewart Bridge is a well-crafted example of Lane County covered bridge construction, featuring the white-painted vertical board siding common to the region and a classic Howe truss in excellent proportion to its span. It carries Brice Creek Road and remains open to vehicle traffic as part of the Row River corridor covered bridge network.
Stewart Bridge was constructed in 1930, near the end of the active covered bridge building period in Lane County. By this date the Howe truss system had been so thoroughly proven in Oregon practice that even a modest 60-foot span received the full covered treatment — a testament to the understood value of the roof and siding in extending bridge life in the wet Pacific Northwest climate.
The bridge is named for the Stewart family, whose farm occupied the land along the Row River near this crossing. The Row River, which flows westward from the Cascade foothills into the Willamette system, was a productive agricultural corridor throughout the 20th century, and the covered bridges along it served as links in the rural road network connecting farms, mills, and markets.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003, Stewart Bridge rounds out the collection of Row River covered bridges that together constitute one of Oregon's most remarkable concentrations of historic timber bridge architecture. The corridor's five surviving covered bridges — Dorena, Chambers, Currin, Centennial, and Stewart — are all accessible by road within a short drive, making this area the premier covered bridge touring destination in the state.