The original river crossing at Shepherdstown was a ford downstream from the modern bridge that had various names , including Boteler 's Ford , Pack Horse Ford , Shepherdstown Ford , and Blackford 's Ford . This ford was utilized by Confederate forces in their retreat from the Battle of Antietam . Around 1755 , Thomas Swearingen started a ferry that operated through 1849 , when the first covered bridge was constructed across the river . The first covered bridge was destroyed by forces under Stonewall Jackson in 1861 . A second covered bridge was constructed in 1871 and lasted until it was destroyed by the same series of floods in 1889 that devastated Johnstown , Pennsylvania . The piers of the covered bridge remain immediately downstream from the modern bridge . An iron bridge was constructed just upstream of the present bridge . This iron bridge was destroyed in the March 1936 series of floods that heavily damaged Pittsburgh . A high-level Wichert continuous truss bridge was constructed at the site of the present bridge and opened July 15 , 1939 . The new bridge was dedicated to James Rumsey , an 18th-century pioneer of the steamboat , who demonstrated his invention on the Potomac River at Shepherdstown in 1787 . Finally , the present bridge , a steel girder span also named for Rumsey , was constructed starting in June 2003 immediately to the north of the 1939 bridge . The new bridge opened July 15 , 2005 , exactly 66 years after the opening of the previous bridge , which was subsequently torn down
devastated Johnstown , Pennsylvania
Johnstown Flood
Maryland Route 34