Covered Bridges of New Hampshire

Jim looks into the interior of the bridge.

 The theme of the last two days seems to accidentally be covered bridges as we leave Maine and head into New Hampshire and then on to Vermont and New York.  We found two such bridges in New Hampshire:

A closer view of the pegs holding the beams together.

The first covered bridge we stumbled upon quite by accident while driving around exploring the local area after settling into an RV park near Henniker, N.H.  Known as the Henniker Bridge, this covered bridge was built in 1972 using traditional methods to serve as a foot bridge on the campus of New England College to cross over the Contoocook River.  The framed trusses made in a “Town Lattice Truss” style were pulled across the river by a team of oxen.  The bridge is slightly over 136 feet long and was built at a cost of $80,000.  It is the first new “Covered Bridge” built in N.H. in the last century and must attain 50 years of age to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places even though it replicates the traditional building style of covered bridges.

Peeking through the lattices.

The Contoocook River which this bridge crosses over flows over a course of 71 miles from Pool Pond in Rindge, N.H., north to the state capital, Concord, where it empties into the Merrimack River.  Three wooden bridges span this river.   It is notable that the river drops over 700 feet along its 71 mile length providing one of the best whitewater boating opportunities in New England.  The river’s unusual flow pattern in a north-northeasterly pattern made the river important during pre-colonial times and during settlement of the area.  Native Americans based their lifestyles here primarily on salmon fishing and agriculture.  The river then became important to European settlers for the water power they could harness using its natural falls or alternatively by building dams across it.

The late afternoon sun puts a golden glow on the wood.

The complicated interior structure.

Interestingly, 117 species of birds depend upon the Contoocook River including bald eagles, the common loon, ospreys, the eastern blue bird and the great blue heron to name a few.  The river serves as a nursery for young Atlantic salmon who travel down the Contoocook to reach the ocean via the Merrimack River.

We walked about the campus of New England College and across the covered bridge (pedestrian only) to view the college’s athletic fields beyond that spread out toward downtown Henniker.  From the covered bridge we could see the arched stone bridge for cars we had traversed that revealed this interesting discovery.

The second covered bridge is located in the Town of Winchester, New Hampshire.  This was also strictly an accidental finding after we wandered around Brattleboro, Vermont, and then crossed the Connecticut River back into New Hampshire.  Turning down a street “off the main road” so to speak on our way back from the local Walmart, we saw the Ashuelot bridge.

A sign there identifies it as “Bridge No. 1” and it is called the “Ashuelot Covered Bridge” built in 1864 at a cost of $4,650.  This bridge is 169 feet long and actually supports vehicles but there is a $5 fine for "riding or driving over this bridge faster than a walk.”  It was built to transport wood across the river for use by the Ashuelot Railroad where they also maintained a railroad station at the time.

The bridge is 149 years old and still functioning

This is wide enough for one car to pass through in one direction.

It is considered by local historians to be one of New Hampshire’s most elaborate covered bridges.  For its age, the bridge has been maintained beautifully and it is an example of the talented use of a lattice truss type construction which uses wooden pegs to hold portions of the structure together.