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| Hookers Mill Bridge, view from downstream side, 1942. | Hookers Mill Bridge, view of east portal, 1942. |
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| COUNTY | WORLD GUIDE # | CROSSES | TRUSS | SPANS | LENGTH | BUILT | GONE |
| Harford | MD-12-04x | Bynum Run | Queenpost | 1 | 70' | 1860 | 1955 |
Hookers Mill or Bynum Run Covered Bridge was the last covered bridge wholly in Harford County. Hookers Mill Bridge was located about a mile north of Abingdon on Hookers Mill Road, near Lee's Mill. Built in 1860 at a cost of $600, it was destroyed by fire in 1955.¹
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| Hookers Mill Bridge, view from downstream side, 1942. | Hookers Mill Bridge, view of east portal, 1942. |
Jane Plant, writer for the Baltimore American described the little bridge in a article on April 4, 1954, just a little over a year before the bridge burned down:
A real gem is the bridge over Bynum Run, near Abingdon. It is a queenpost bridge. It seems less secluded than it is for gunfire from the Aberdeen Proving Grounds sounds very loud there. With its beautiful situation one wishes there were a small park there to picnic or rest.
The Baltimore Evening Sun reported on the burning of Hookers Mill Covered Bridge in an article on July 9. 1955:
The charred remains of Harford County's last covered bridge were being investigated today to determine whether an arsonist set the fire which destroyed the historic landmark. George A. Grier, executive assistant engineer for the county, said: "There is nothing to lead us to believe it was hit by lighting or anything like that." The still smoldering oak and pine timbers, which once stretched 70 feet over Bynum Run, south of Bush, were discovered by a motorist shortly before 7 A.M. yesterday.
Located on a little used byroad which trails through an area of farms and woodlands, the bridge apparently vanished in flames without being observed by any of the residents of the region. State police, the county's Central Fire Control Station and the volunteer fire company at near-by Abingdon did not learn of the blaze until later in the day.
No definite evaluation could be placed on the wooden structure, Mr. Grier said, but a concrete-and-steel replacement is expected to cost "upward of $50,000." He added that the gravel lane on which the bridge was situated carried about 75 cars a day, and that construction of a new bridge will probably be postponed "for at least several months." The old structure cleared the shallow waters of Bynum Run by about 14 feet and was about 20 feet high.