The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a bridge as “a structure carrying a pathway or roadway over a depression or obstacle”. Well then, how did the Parkland Covered Bridge get its name? Although it is a structure carrying a pathway, it sits on dry land and there’s no depression or obstacle to be crossed!
The story goes something like this. In the early 1980s the eastern part of Parkland, along Holmberg Road, was known as Country Point. The Country Place residential community was being developed by Oriole Homes Corporation on the north side of Holmberg Road, north of a city-owned park and to the east of NW 61st Avenue. The only access to Country Place was off Holmberg Road at 61st Avenue. According to Carolyn Marks, a long-time resident of Parkland, the developer offered to purchase ‘something’ to beautify the park and make it distinctive for the residents.
City of Parkland Commissioners Maryjane Sexton and Bobbi Pugliese wanted something attractive and in keeping with a “country” setting in Parkland’s developing suburban environment. The Commissioners decided it would be nice to acquire a covered bridge. You can see some of the Country Place homes in the picture below.
The bridge was originally intended to be utilized as a “bridge”, that is, “over a depression or obstacle” but, unfortunately, when it was placed, it had no access to anywhere, no depression, no obstacle. There is a pond to its left and a lake to its right--connected by a culvert covered by several feet of land--but it sits on land connecting land to land. As Ira Goldman, another long-time resident of Parkland wrote, this bridge “does not traverse the two bodies of water on each side of it.” The bridge “is an anomaly as far as bridges go, it is a dry land covered bridge. It sits on a knoll between two bodies of water. What a unique concept, a dry land covered bridge.”
Now the bridge just sits at Parkland’s Covered Bridge Park, 6031 Holmberg Road, as the identifying landmark for which it was originally intended.
The park includes the bridge and is accessible from either Holmberg Road or Hillsboro Boulevard via an Australian pine tree-lined trail on the west side of Winners Circle. The trail connects Covered Bridge Park and 6-acre Park off Hillsboro Boulevard.
Covered Bridge Park was deeded to the City of Parkland on October 18, 1989 and is a passive park used primarily for special events such as photo shoots, weddings, walks and introspection.
