Covered Bridge, Charlemont, Massachusetts

A covered bridge in Charlemont, Massachusetts, back as it was in the day, not needing to be restored or renovated, and probably not getting an overwhelming amount of traffic.  This photo is undated, from the ImageMuseum website.  In white ink someone has labeled the white frame house as "Walkers Residence." 

There'll be some lovely foliage out that way now.  Just not in the sepia photo.

Woodstock and Windsor - in the Middle of Vermont

A ride through Vermont today, and a few views from the middle of the state.  Above, here's the common and town center of Woodstock.

Across from the common is where you drop your letters to Santa.  But not this time of year.  A relic akin to the old hitching post.

Eastward and nestled beside the long Connecticut River (Connecticut actually meaning: long tidal river), is the town of Windsor, where we take advantage of a good day for some spring planting.

Both towns are in Windsor County, both have populations of a bit over 3,000 people, but one thrived in the Industrial Revolution, and the other remained largely agricultural.  Windsor is where those rebellious free thinkers wrote themselves a Constitution, broke off from Mother England, and declared the Republic of Vermont.

We previously covered the Windsor-Cornish Covered Bridge here, one of the longest covered bridges in the world, where you can slip over to New Hampshire if you want to.  Go ahead, I'll wait.

Gilbertville Covered Bridge - Hardwick & Ware, Massachusetts

The Gilbertville Covered Bridge, also known as the Ware-Hardwick Covered Bridge, built in 1887, crosses the Ware River between the central Massachusetts towns of Ware and Hardwick.  Gilbertville is the village in Hardwick where the bridge is located.

 

These photos are from 1992, a period between two important restorations.  The bridge is a little over 136 feet long, and about 24 feet wide, with a roadway of a little over 19 feet. 

 

 

It had been restored in 1987, but due to a number of issues, including a pernicious beetle infestation, was closed to traffic in 2002, finally rebuilt and opened again to traffic in 2010.

 

 

 

Have a look here for more on the Gilbertville Covered Bridge.

 

 

 

 

Old Covered Bridge - Sheffield, Massachusetts

Of the handful of covered bridges that remain in Massachusetts, the oldest, built in 1832, was burned down by vandals in 1994. Here is its replacement, constructed in 1998 as a reproduction of the original.

This bridge, however, is closed to vehicular traffic. It’s a 91-foot span in the Town Lattice style crossing the lazy Housatonic River in the Berkshire County town of Sheffield.

south side of the bridge



Interestingly, the WPA Massachusetts Guidebook of 1938 mentions two covered bridges, both over 100 years old, standing only a half-mile apart. Both bridges were still in use. What happened to this other bridge?

north side of the bridge

West Cornwall Covered Bridge - Connecticut

The iconic red bridge has known its lonely moments, but this is not one of them. On a spanking fresh fall day, the West Cornwall Covered Bridge in West Cornwall, Connecticut is likely to be the scene of converging leaf-peepers with cameras.

Open to vehicular traffic, a minor traffic jam might occur when someone takes a little extra time to get that perfect shot.

Bridges were placed on this spot over the Housatonic River as early as the 1760s, but floods and ice swept them away. This present bridge was reckoned to have been built about 1864. It had been gray colored until 1957, when it was first painted red and took on the image of typical New England tourist brochure. According to the ConnecticutHistory.org site mentioned below, the producers of the 1967 film, “Valley of the Dolls” used a shot of the bridge at the opening of the movie to represent an idyllic New England town.

Fame didn’t go to the bridge’s head. It’s still willing to mingle among the little people, it’s adoring fans, who cluster under its roof timbers and line up along the banks of the Housatonic as they set up for that perfect photo.

A covered bridge is a precarious structure. This one has been threatened (what hasn’t?) by the Hurricane of 1938, the 1955 flood, and a 1961 ice jam. An effort by the community in 1968 to save and preserve the bridge received the help of the Connecticut Department of Transportation to raise the bridge and insert a steel support under the roadway. Today it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

If you happen to be meandering through western Connecticut, have a look at West Cornwall’s lovely bridge. If it’s a sunny, leaf-peeping weekend and others have gotten there first, don’t mind. Get out your camera. You’ll get your turn. In the meantime, listen to the splash of the Housatonic on the stones below, and breathe the fresh air. It’s a good spot for a rest.

For more on the West Cornwall Covered Bridge, have a look at this West Cornwall Historical Society site, and this site for ConnecticutHistory.org.

Mystery Covered Bridge

This covered bridge is in New Hampshire.  The photo was taken I believe in the early '90s.  I'm afraid that's all I know about it.  I'd like to know more.  If you recognize this bridge, please leave a comment, or send me an email to JacquelineTLynch@gmail.com.  Thanks.

Taftsville Covered Bridge - Woodstock, Vermont

The Taftsville Covered Bridge crosses the Ottauquechee River. We’re in Woodstock, Vermont.

Build in 1836, it’s one of the oldest covered bridges in Vermont.

It’s stretches 189 feet over two spans, with a Multiple Kingpost truss. It was renovated in the 1950s, more repairs in the 1990s. Artists like to paint it. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

These pictures are from before.

In August this year, it was battered by rising floodwaters when the storm Irene made a rude and impromptu visit to New England. Though still standing, it’s unsafe for auto traffic now and closed. Here is a brief video clip showing the bridge standing up to the raging Ottauquechee. Before this, it was slated to undergo further renovation.



Plans at this point are for repairs next summer. Life goes on after storms, and sometimes, so do covered bridges.

Lincoln Covered Bridge - Woodstock, Vermont

Here is the Lincoln Covered Bridge in Woodstock, Vermont. These photos were taken before Hurricane Irene, but the bridge is still safe and standing, as it has since it was built in 1877.

The bridge is open to auto traffic, one lane only, spanning the Ottauquechee River. Have a look here for more on the Lincoln Covered Bridge.

 

Bridge of Flowers - Shelburne Falls, Mass

Here is the Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls, western Massachusetts on another beautiful fall day. Our beautiful fall tourist season is fast approaching, though with a few less trees this year. Just this past weekend with Hurricane, then Tropical Storm Irene, the Bridge of Flowers faced another weather challenge from the rapidly rising Deerfield River.

Rivers become angry, scary creatures in the wake of too much rain or snow melt, and as we have often seen, can do terrific damage. Smaller hill towns can find themselves isolated, without power, emergency assistance, or escape. Irene could have been much worse, but a storm is never a good thing under the best of circumstances. In the past, the odd hurricanes that meander up here often destroy businesses that never reopen. It is sometimes easier for us to put a number on the horrific loss of life than it is to account for jobs and income lost.

We don’t know yet what the extent of damage and loss still occurring in Vermont. Many communities are isolated from washed-out roads. Some of Vermont’s celebrated covered bridges are damaged or swept away.

The Bridge of Flowers may have a happier fate. It has a modest history, the pride of this small town of Shelburne Falls. It had been a trolley bridge built in 1908 by the Shelburne Falls & Colrain Street Railway. It connected Shelburne Falls and Buckland across the Deerfield River. The trolley company went bankrupt in 1927 (another flood year, as it happens), when more people and goods began to be transported by car and truck. You can see the old restored No. 10 trolley and more info at the Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum. Have a look at this website.

The year after the trolley bridge was discontinued, in a series of public spiritedness and plain good ideas, the bridge was bought by the Shelburne Falls Fire District, and the Shelburne Falls Woman’s Club sponsored a project to turn the old railway bridge into a unique garden. In the spring of 1929, loads of loam and fertilizer were laid out on the bridge, and donated labor created a garden and a pathway through which one could stroll from Buckland to Shelburne Falls along one of the prettiest routes ever created.

In the earlier 1980s, the community again banded together to restore the aging Bridge of Flowers.  For more information on the Bridge of Flowers, have a look here.

In weeks to come I’ll try to post more on some of Vermont’s covered bridges, both ones that were swept away and those that remain. Unfortunately, it will take some weeks for the Green Mountain State to even assess the ruin left by Tropical Storm Irene. One can only speculate at this time if their upcoming beautiful fall tourist season may be one of those casualties.

Bull's Bridge - Kent, Connecticut

Bull’s Bridge in Kent, Connecticut attracts a few photographers on an autumn day, and hikers to the nearby Appalachian Trail.

The Bull family built an ironworks hereabouts sometime around 1740, but the exact date of the first covered bridge here is unknown. Possibly the current bridge design, restored and updated for automobile traffic, dates from the mid 19th century. It crosses the Housatonic River, which is harnessed near this location by a dam and canal system, providing power to the hydro-electric plant.

If you don’t really need to cross the Housatonic, then just come for the photo-op.

Covered Railroad Bridges - Newport, New Hampshire

At first we see what appears to be a covered bridge partly blocked from view by the overgrowth of scrub and trees on the bank of the river it crosses. This end of the bridge meets a dirt road, a recreational trail.

On second glance, there is more to understand. This is a railroad bridge, one of only two covered railroad bridges in the state of New Hampshire. The other is a short way down the road. There are only about eight of them left in all of North America.

These two railway bridges are called the Pier Bridge and Wright’s Bridge across the Sugar River in Newport. I think this one is the Pier Bridge, but I hope someone out there can either confirm that or set me right. We can see it is under renovation. We may assume the portable toilet will not be a permanent part of its restoration design.

The Piers Bridge was built in 1907 by the Boston and Maine Railroad to replace an earlier bridge from the 1870s. It is the longest covered railway bridge in the world. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the citizens of Newport have been working diligently to raise funds to preserve their covered bridges as historic treasures and as examples of their own personal heritage.

That is the emotional pull towards historic treasures we must have to truly value them: a sense of personal pride of heritage when we have them, and a sense of personal loss when we lose them.

Have a look at these two websites for more on the Pier and the Wright’s covered railway bridges.

UPDATE:  Thanks to the correction of one reader who sent me an email on the subject, my remark above that there are only two railroad bridges in New Hampshire is incorrect.  While the Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology  department currently recognizes eight covered railroad bridges in the U.S., among those listed there are indeed more than two in New Hampshire as I had stated.  There appear to be five in their guide.  I'd love to know if there are more that are not on the government's list.  Here is a link to that website:

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/infrastructure/structures/04098/02.cfm

Bissell Covered Bridge - Charlemont, Mass.

This is the Bissell Covered Bridge in Charlemont, western Massachusetts. If you look through the trusses you can just about see the small open bridge behind it. It almost looks like a symbol of the feud between past and present, but it’s really emblematic of the future, the kind of future we choose.

The Bissell Covered Bridge, this one, was built in 1951. There had been an earlier bridge here built in 1880, but was condemned in the 1940s. When the town chose to replace the bridge, they decided to replace it not with a modern open bridge, but with another covered bridge. The wood is Douglas fir from Oregon, and shingles are cedar.

This bridge was closed to vehicular traffic in 1995, and would have been replaced by the state with a modern open bridge, except Charlemont said no thank you in no uncertain terms. A stalemate lasted some 14 years while the state built that temporary bridge in the background, and the town continued to push for the renovation of the covered bridge, in the foreground. The bridge in the foreground won.

Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004, the one-span Bissell Covered Bridge is a variation of a Long Truss style, 92 feet in length. It was re-opened to vehicular traffic only about six months ago after a two-year restoration. (In responding to a comment on covered bridges opened only to foot traffic in this post on the Arthur A. Smith bridge, I mistakenly referred to the Bissell as being currently open only to foot traffic. I also mistakenly referred to it as being in Conway. Never rely on memory.)

So, drive your car on over to Charlemont and over the bridge, but then walk back. It’s worth a closer look.

Arthur A. Smith Covered Bridge - Colrain, Mass.

The Arthur A. Smith Bridge, named for a Civil War Army captain, was first in one location over the North River, then moved further downstream to the Lyonsville Road spot about 1886. It would be moved again, not downstream or upstream, but over onto dry land.

At the time of the photo above, the Arthur A. Smith Bridge, as you can see, was dry docked, for a lack of a better word, in a crumbling state and left in the embarrassing position of rotting in a cornfield since 1991. It had been placed on the National Register of Historic Placed back in 1983, so it was hoped the bridge could one day be restored.

Eventually, in 2005, it was. For a look at the restored Arthur A. Smith Covered Bridge, back in its function as a bridge crossing the North River, have a look at this website. The bridge had been built originally in 1870 (replacing an earlier bridge), a Burr arch design 99 feet in length, originally meant for one lane of traffic (horse-drawn, that is). It was not originally covered, but the roof was added in the 1890s. Today it is used only for pedestrian traffic.

The 1938 WPA “Guide to Massachusetts” lists two covered bridges at this spot in Colrain. If anyone knows more about the second one, I’d love to know. (There had once been several more covered bridges in Colrain, and the Arthur A. Smith is the very last.)

It’s nice to see the photo of the restored bridge over the North River off Rt. 112 all painted red and tidy, but the above view of the bridge to nowhere has perhaps even more emotion to it. There is something haunted-looking about an historic site left abandoned. As it is, the restored bridge, now open only to pedestrian traffic, is little more than ornamental. Perhaps the restoration of this long dormant chunk of 19th century infrastructure says something about the power and the worth of even what is only ornamental.

Creamery Covered Bridge - Brattleboro, VT

This is the Creamery Covered Bridge in Brattleboro, Vermont. It’s just off Route 9, and is one of southern Vermont’s most easily accessible covered bridges, making it very popular with the tourists.

Built in 1879 over Whetstone Brook, the bridge is some 80 feet long and 19 feet wide. The slate roof replaced the original wooden shingles around 1917, and the sidewalk was added around the same time. It’s built in the Town Lattice design.



What attracts us to covered bridges may not be something exactly precise, except for those who passions are 19th century architecture and engineering. For the rest of us, it may be just the general impression of a slower time, when to form and function something else was added. A sense of heritage as much as a sense of purpose. They are quaint, because we cannot pass over them at 70mph, we are compelled drive slowly, and then once on the other side, to get out of the car and walk back, and take a picture.

For more on the Brattleboro covered bridge, have a look here.

Bridge Street - Springfield, Mass

Bridge Street in Springfield, Massachusetts, was named so because it was the road leading off the first bridge in western Massachusetts across the Connecticut River. That bridge is gone now, and Bridge Street no longer leads to any bridge. But it’s interesting that by examining the history of one single street we can see a world through time in microcosm.

This first bridge across the Connecticut River, the longest river in New England (our “mighty Mississipp” if you will), was built in 1804, a generation since our Independence from Great Britain. It was funded by public lotteries.

This was a toll bridge, designed and built by Isaac Damon of Northampton, who also built Springfield’s Old First Church. It was, typically, a covered bridge, painted red, and on its dedication ceremony on October 30, 1804, cannon fired in salute, first from one bank of the river, and then the other. Wagons were charged 10 cents to cross, with 10 cents extra for each horse. Schoolchildren were allowed to cross for a special rate of 25 cents per month.

The bridge collapsed in June, 1814 after only ten years of service. It was speculated that the heavy supply Army wagon trains repeatedly crossing the bridge during the War of 1812 was a contributing factor.

The bridge was replaced by another covered toll bridge in 1818, which linked Bridge Street in Springfield to the isolated towns on the western side of the river. Besides the ease of movement, and the ease of commerce this bridge provided, it also transformed Bridge Street from a quiet neighborhood of settlers to a business district.


In the 1800s, there were three Protestant churches on Bridge Street, when in the middle of the century the Yankee population were joined by Irish and French Canadian laborers, many of whom worked on the nearby New York, New Hampshire, and Hartford Railroad.

Some famous tenants on Bridge Street were the family of Broadway’s most famous song and dance man George M. Cohan when performing locally. The family of artist James Whistler also lived on Bridge Street for a brief period. Still a fairly bucolic setting, local businessman Charles H. Hunt remembered skating on Frost Pond, which he recalled in an article for the Springfield Republican in 1914, used to stand between Main and Dwight streets.


Artist James Whistler.

In the 1850s, a small wooden Bridge Street School was located here. A roller-skating rink was built in 1879 “when the roller-skating craze was at its height….” recounted a Springfield Republican article from October 3, 1895. The building served a variety of uses afterwards, in the early 1890s was rented by a horse dealer named Sheckler. The building was torn down in 1895 for a new city market.

The Bridge Street Theatre was built in 1893, replacing C.B. Maxwell’s three-story furniture store. All three floors were torn out and a balcony was run around the building. Prices at the theater ran from 10 cents to 35 cents. Possibly this is where the Cohans played.


In the 1890s there were plumbers and laborers on Bridge Street, clerks, and a peddler named Cohen. Because of the massive Old Toll Bridge, still standing after decades of use, Bridge was a main artery into the city, yet at this time was still very much an ethnic neighborhood. There lived a large concentration of Irish at the beginning of Bridge Street where it met Water Street, and many French Canadians. Two of the Protestant churches had left by this time, following their congregations outward to other areas of the city.

Despite the daily traffic of wagons, walkers and the new bicycles across the bridge, Bridge Street still had only a few stores at this time to attract them. The only large business was the F.S. Carr bicycle factory.

Bridge Street created a bazaar-like scene with Jenks’ Bakery, Sheldon’s fish market, Gleason & Broughall’s Catholic bookstore, Phillips grocery, the livery stable run by Mr. Fuller and Mr. Sheckler, and a pair of housewives who advertised as clairvoyants.

Representing the skilled trades were Sanderson & Son furriers, embalmer John Clune, and harness maker Theophile Regnier. Garratt Barry was a liquor dealer, and F.E. Howles sold beef wholesale.

With stables and fish markets, there were apparently no zoning laws for either health or basic comfort in the 1890s. Not on Bridge Street. The predominant industry was the taking in of borders. Families seemed to have made as much a business of it as the nearby Winkler Hotel. At this time, Bridge Street was still very residential.

It was not until the automobile boom that Bridge Street transformed from residential neighborhood to business district. By 1909, there was increased travel over the bridge. The large employers with offices on Bridge Street included the Fisk Rubber Company, S.E. Buxton maker of leather goods, the Maynard Rubber Corporation, and the Thacker Paper Company. There were dealers in office equipment, shoe stores, dental supplies, express companies, plumbing supplies, wholesale butter and egg merchants, and the Eastern State Refrigerating Company. The saloons grew to three, and a final Protestant church was built, the Trinity Methodist. Sheckler’s horse stable was torn down.

Joining the Irish and French Canadian residents in a new surge of population from Europe, were Armenians, German Jews, Greeks, and Poles, working as tailors, shoemakers, jewelers, and as laborers in the few nearby factories or as yardmen on the NY, NH & H Railroad.

The street lost some of its world-unto-itself quality and began to blend in fully with the downtown district when government offices occupied several blocks. The State Employment Office, the City Forester’s Office, offices for the Inspector of Coal, the Inspector of Milk and Vinegar, and the Sealer of Weights and Measures located here. They were joined by the Water Commissioner, the City Engineer, and the Street and Sewer Department.

Through the era of World War I, Bridge Street seemed to continue to be a stopping ground for new immigrants, but these newcomers would not establish themselves here, but move on in a year or two to other burgeoning neighborhoods. There were less shops on Bridge Street, less vacant rooms to rent or small places of business for them to work or own.


The Broadway Theatre and the Geisha Theatre for that new entertainment, the moving picture, were built here on Bridge Street in 1913 and 1914, respectively. The old Bridge Street Theatre had since been torn down. The Trinity Methodist Church followed its congregation to Sumner Avenue.

Perhaps the biggest change on Bridge Street was the new streets that were carved out between the Bridge Street and Worthington Street, which ran parallel to each other. These new side streets were Phelps, Church, Simmons, and Broadway. Columbus Avenue took the place of old Water Street.

In 1922 the biggest event to change Bridge Street forever took place a block south on Vernon Street. Here, a new bridge was built to replace the now over 100-year-old Old Toll Bridge.

Called the Hampden County Memorial Bridge, Governor Channing H. Cox presided over the dedication ceremonies on August 2, 1922. A block north, the Old Toll Bridge was torn down, and Bridge Street no longer connected to a bridge. Also, the old railroad bridge underpass on Bridge Street which allowed the NY, NH & H Railroad to cross the street as it followed the course of the Connecticut River, was bricked up, over protest by local residents. One end of Bridge Street cut off, the end that had been the gateway to America for generations of immigrants. Vernon Street was widened to accommodate heavy automobile traffic off the new bridge.

In 1924, two years later, the resident population of Bridge Street dwindled. Those who remained worked as salesmen or chauffeurs, lunch room workers. There were four lunch rooms on Bridge Street now to accommodate office workers in the Stearns Building. This building contained the offices of Globe Indemnity, and over a dozen other insurance agencies, dentists, and other professionals.

The Fisk and Maynard rubber companies were gone, as was the Geisha Theatre, the fish and meat markets. The Norcross-Cameron Garage sold Chrysler, Chalmers, Maxwell, and Peerless cars. Bailey & Son was the only carriage maker left, and one assumes he saw the handwriting on the wall.

The majority of the people working on Bridge Street now did not live there, and they were white collar workers and not skilled tradesmen or laborers.


Bridge Street grew into a vibrant and somewhat independent and self-sustaining neighborhood while the bridge was there, and then changed when the bridge was torn down. Neighborhood became business district, which then became only a side street in a much larger, more inter-dependent downtown. It was no longer a world unto itself.

Note: The photo of George M. Cohan is from the Library of Congress, originally published by the Bain News Service, now in public domain. The photo of James Whistler is likewise from the Library of Congress, now in public domain.

Program for the Broadway Theatre, author's collection.

All other photos are from the Image Museum website, photos posted for free use.