40 Fun Facts About The Bridges of Madison County

Which magazine has sent photographer Robert Kincaid to Iowa in The Bridges of Madison County?

National Geographic gives Kincaid the assignment that brings him to Francesca's farm gate, where he stops to ask for directions.

What destroyed the Cedar Bridge, pictured on the cover of the novel The Bridges of Madison County, in 2002 and 2017?

Arson claimed the 1883 original in 2002 and then its replica in 2017. The bridge was built a third time and reopened in 2019.

Which Western star was born in Winterset, the Iowa town where much of The Bridges of Madison County was filmed?

John Wayne is Winterset's most famous son, and a museum devoted to him opened in 2015 across from the house where he was born.

Which actress won the Oscar that Meryl Streep was nominated for as Francesca in The Bridges of Madison County?

Susan Sarandon won for playing Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking, her first victory after four losing nominations.

Which 1995 film with a Clint Eastwood cameo kept The Bridges of Madison County from opening at number one?

Casper was in its second weekend when the romance opened behind it at number two. Eastwood appears in the ghost comedy as himself.

Meryl Streep gained weight for The Bridges of Madison County to resemble Italian film stars such as which actress?

Sophia Loren was Streep's model for a fuller-figured Francesca, a look that deliberately departed from the character described in the novel.

Which director's company bought the film rights to The Bridges of Madison County before the novel was even published?

Steven Spielberg's Amblin paid just $25,000 for the rights. He helped rewrite the script and thought about directing the film himself.

Which Iowa author wrote the 1992 bestselling novel behind The Bridges of Madison County in just eleven days?

Robert James Waller got the idea after photographing the county's covered bridges, and his book stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for more than three years.

From which bridge does Francesca Johnson ask to have her ashes scattered in The Bridges of Madison County?

Roseman Bridge is where Kincaid was heading when he first met Francesca. Her request shocks her children, who expected a burial beside their father.

Which Irish Nobel laureate wrote The Song of Wandering Aengus, the poem referenced in The Bridges of Madison County?

W. B. Yeats wrote it about an old man still searching for a girl who vanished, a fitting echo for two lovers who part after four days.

Which American Film Institute list, unveiled in 2002, ranks The Bridges of Madison County at number 90?

100 Years...100 Passions counts down the greatest love stories in American film, and was revealed in a TV special hosted by Candice Bergen.

After Clint Eastwood appealed, which rating replaced the R first given to The Bridges of Madison County over one line?

Rated PG-13 on appeal, the film had first been marked up for a single sarcastic remark of Francesca's that contains a strong swear word.

In the film The Bridges of Madison County, where do Francesca's husband and children spend the four days of her affair?

At the state fair, the family is away just long enough for Francesca to guide a lost stranger to a bridge and fall in love with him.

In which Iowa city did the US tour of the musical The Bridges of Madison County open in November 2015?

Des Moines hosted the opening at its Civic Center, a short drive from the real bridges, with the show's composer conducting the orchestra.

What was the day job of the author of the novel The Bridges of Madison County before it made him famous?

A business professor at the University of Northern Iowa, he taught management and economics and was the founding dean of its business college.

In which nation did The Bridges of Madison County spend nine straight weeks at number one and win a Blue Ribbon Award?

Japan embraced the film: it took over $35 million there, and Tokyo's film journalists voted it the Best Foreign Film of its year.

Which film beat The Bridges of Madison County to the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Drama of 1995?

Sense and Sensibility won the Globe over a field that also included Braveheart and Apollo 13. Braveheart went on to take the Oscar instead.

What did the author of The Bridges of Madison County release in 1993 as The Ballads of Madison County?

An album of songs, issued by Atlantic Records while the novel was America's top bestseller: he was a musician as well as a writer.

In the film The Bridges of Madison County, war bride Francesca Johnson originally comes from which Italian city?

Bari, a port on the Adriatic coast, is the home Francesca left as a WWII war bride to follow her husband to his Iowa farm.

The key that Francesca's children find in The Bridges of Madison County unlocks which item holding her notebooks?

Her hope chest holds three hardbound notebooks, old cameras and magazines: the record of an affair she had kept from her family.

In The Bridges of Madison County, where do Michael and Carolyn find the envelope of photographs, letters and a key?

In a safe deposit box, opened while they settle the estate, they find pictures of their mother and letters from a man they have never heard of.

Which keepsake of Francesca's is Robert Kincaid wearing in his magazine portrait in The Bridges of Madison County?

Her crucifix pendant hangs at his neck in the portrait printed beside his bridge pictures, which her children discover among her mementos.

In the novel The Bridges of Madison County, Robert Kincaid drives to Iowa from his home in which Washington city?

Bellingham lies just 21 miles south of the Canadian border, so Kincaid crosses half a continent to reach the bridges.

Which European film star screen-tested for Francesca in The Bridges of Madison County before Meryl Streep won the role?

Catherine Deneuve tested for the part, but Eastwood had championed Streep from the very beginning and prevailed.

Which producer, later the president of Lucasfilm, co-produced The Bridges of Madison County with Clint Eastwood?

Kathleen Kennedy had produced E.T. and Jurassic Park before this quiet romance, and later oversaw the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

A Clint Eastwood biographer calls The Bridges of Madison County an update of the play behind which David Lean film?

Brief Encounter was adapted from Noël Coward's short play Still Life, about a married woman and a doctor whose affair ends in parting.

Which composer won two Tony Awards for the Broadway musical of The Bridges of Madison County after it had closed?

Jason Robert Brown took Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations three weeks after the final curtain; the show had lasted only 100 performances.

Which Broadway star earned a Tony nomination as Francesca in the musical of The Bridges of Madison County?

Kelli O'Hara missed the show's first staging because she was expecting her second child, then led the Broadway cast and earned the nomination.

Which Pulitzer-winning playwright of 'night, Mother wrote the book for the musical of The Bridges of Madison County?

Marsha Norman had already won a Tony for the book of The Secret Garden, another musical drawn from a much-loved novel.

Which design field earned the Broadway musical of The Bridges of Madison County one of its four Tony nominations?

Lighting brought a nomination for designer Donald Holder, though the award went to Kevin Adams for Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

Which screenwriter of The Fisher King wrote the script for The Bridges of Madison County from Francesca's viewpoint?

Richard LaGravenese delivered the third attempt at a script and the first one Eastwood liked; two earlier writers had been set aside.

Which composer, an Army friend of Clint Eastwood, won a BMI Film Music Award for scoring The Bridges of Madison County?

Lennie Niehaus met Eastwood at Fort Ord in the early 1950s, where the two bonded over jazz, and went on to score a long run of his films.

Which 2002 sequel to the novel The Bridges of Madison County follows Robert Kincaid long after the affair?

A Thousand Country Roads was turned down by the publisher of the original bestseller and came out from a small press instead.

Which film magazine's poll placed The Bridges of Madison County joint first among the best films of the 1990s?

Cahiers du Cinéma, the influential French journal, placed it level with Goodbye South, Goodbye at the top of its poll for the decade.

In The Bridges of Madison County, Francesca's hidden photographs were taken at which bridge, the county's longest?

Holliwell crosses the Middle River southeast of Winterset, and it is also the longest timber bridge left anywhere in Iowa.

Which Unforgiven cinematographer was nominated by his own guild, the ASC, for The Bridges of Madison County?

Jack N. Green was Eastwood's regular cameraman from 1986 to 2000, and his work on Unforgiven had earned an Oscar nomination.

Which jazz baritone, who recorded with John Coltrane, is heard in the romantic scenes of The Bridges of Madison County?

Johnny Hartman had been dead for more than a decade when Eastwood chose four tracks from an out-of-print record of his for the film.

Which Driving Miss Daisy director was attached to The Bridges of Madison County before Clint Eastwood took over?

Bruce Beresford ordered a new script from Alfred Uhry, but the studio preferred the existing draft, so he left and Eastwood directed.

Which production company of Clint Eastwood's, named after a California creek, co-produced The Bridges of Madison County?

Malpaso Productions was set up in 1967 with profits from the Dollars Trilogy, and co-producing here gave Eastwood more control over the film.

Which Rescue Me actor originated the role of Robert Kincaid in the Broadway musical of The Bridges of Madison County?

Steven Pasquale was the one lead who stayed with the show from its 2013 tryout through Broadway to a reunion concert at Carnegie Hall.