Ashtabula County, our neighbor to the north, is known for its wineries and for Lake Erie.

But it's also known for its covered bridges. It has the most covered bridges in Ohio, and some of them boast world records.

There was a time in our history when if a local community needed a bridge, they pretty much had to build it themselves.

Timbers were cut right by the creeks, and the foundations were hand-cut rocks from a local quarry.

The timbers were put together with wooden pegs — thousands of them.

Carl Feather, a covered bridge expert, said the bridges were covered so they would last.

“If you just put those wooden trusses up, exposed to the weather, they would eventually rot,” he said. “It wouldn't take very long whenever you have wood coming in contact with wood. It's just a way of protecting the timbers of the bridge."

Feather said people come from all over the world to see the 19 different bridges the county has to offer.

“There are very few things from the 19th century that are still in use,” Feather said. “You can go inside and run your hands over timbers that are 150 years old. They are so photogenic, as well. We have many people come just to photograph them.”

Rick and Pat McKinley came from Alberta, Canada, to take the covered bridge tour.

Rick McKinley said he likes the design of the covered bridges the most.

“The construction. The old wood inside them,” Rick McKinley said. “I like to go down along the river and take pictures up from the bridge.”

You can drive through almost all of the bridges; some you can't.

Many were built in the 1800s. The older ones have been renovated so they can still allow for traffic.

The county's newest and 19th covered bridge is just a pedestrian bridge, but it's very easy to find. It happens to be located right under the world's longest covered bridge.

The Smolen-Gulf bridge in Ashtabula is 613 feet long and nearly 100 feet above the Ashtabula River.

In nearby Geneva, you have the opposite. The shortest covered bridge the world at just 18 feet long.

“Each one is different, which is nice,” said Pat McKinley. “Each one is its own unique bridge, which is awesome. They're rickety. They creak, and they smell like old wood. They creak when you drive across.”

That's half the fun: Driving through and listening to the bridge and looking through the beams and the lattice at the creeks below.

What you see around and through the bridges change with the different seasons, but the different views almost always look beautiful

You can pick up a covered bridge tour guide from any county hotel and explore them on your own.