Tour A : SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 2003
Joe Nelson, author of Spanning Time: Vermont's Covered Bridges, will lead a tour of covered bridges in Fairfax, Montgomery, and Cambridge
Tour will depart at 9 a.m. from the Billings Center on the University of Vermont campus and is scheduled to return to Burlington between 5 and 6 p.m.
Cost: $45 Click here for registration information. Click here for conference information.
The northern Green Mountain watershed feeds an extensive system of rivers and streams with snow-melt in the spring and with summer and fall rains. The Lamoille River rises in Greensboro and loops and curls its way roughly seventy miles--as the crow flies--to Lake Champlain. The North Branch flows into the Lamoille some thirteen miles from its source in Eden. Browns River curves down from Mount Mansfield and through twenty-two miles of rich bottomland. Black Creek flows north to the Missisquoi River valley.
People came to these lush valleys starting in the late 1700s, and soon settlements grew, dams rose, mill wheels turned, roads were laid out, and bridges replaced fords. The towns and villages of Westford, Fairfax, Cambridge, Fairfield, Waterville, and Belvidere came to be.
Eleven covered bridges remain from the days of growth in this region. The oldest known surviving bridge dates back to 1838, while the youngest was completed in 1897. Four are arch bridges, one a plank lattice, and the rest are queen post.
The tour of the Lamoille River and the North Branch can begin in Westford. There, the 97- foot Burr-truss bridge built in 1838 crosses the Browns River on Cambridge Road off Route 128. The bridge was rescued from collapse and has been repaired through the efforts of the Westford Historical Society and the townspeople.
North, off Route 104 in Fairfax a "cross-x" bridge dating from 1865 stands over Mill Brook on Maple Street, a survivor of the 1927 flood.
In Cambridge, off Route 15 in farmer Gates' cornfield stands the Gates Farm Bridge, a burr- truss, or "arch" bridge. Originally built by George Washington Holmes in 1897, it was restored
in 1994. Route 15 crosses the Lamoille River on the concrete and steel bridge which replaced the old "double barrel" span now in the Shelburne Museum.
Jeffersonville's 80-foot Grist Mill Bridge, an "arch" bridge, crosses the Brewster River just beyond the old mill off Route 108 south toward Stowe. Date and builder unknown.
The Poland or Cambridge Junction Bridge crosses the Lamoille River off Route 15 just beyond Jeffersonville, a 140-foot "arch" bridge built by G. W. Holmes in 1887 has been closed to traffic.
The East Fairfield Bridge crosses Black Creek in the Village of East Fairfield off Route 36. The 68-foot queenposter was built in 1865 is open only to foot traffic. It was once in the center of a
19th century industrial complex.
Route 109, which parallels the North Branch, gives access to three queenpost structures built in the 1870s and 80s, all within two miles. The Church Street Bridge stands in the center of the Village of Waterville. Just are the Dallas Montgomery and Jaynes bridges. Two more queenpost spans stand in Belvidere, the Lumber Mill Bridge, 1895, and the Morgan Bridge, 1887.
Montgomery's Bridges
The Town of Montgomery is home to seven Town lattice bridges, all built by the brothers Savanna and Sheldon Jewetts over a period of about thirty years, and all but one accessible from Route 118.
Montgomery became a town of mills, turning spruce, beech, birch, maple, and hemlock into sap buckets and butter tubs, bobbins and veneer. The peak growth years for the mills stretched from the 1860s into the 1890s, the years the Jewetts built their bridges.
The Hectorville Bridge, 1883, stands bypassed on Gibou Road.
The Hutchins Bridge, 1883, once served a tub factory, now gives access to one private home.
The Fuller Bridge, originally built in 1890, was replaced with a replica. It crosses the Black Falls Brook in the heart of Montgomery Village.
The Comstock Bridge, 1883, crosses the Trout River located on a piece of the old road to Berkshire.
The Creamery Bridge, 1883, crosses West Hill Brook high on the south slope of West Hill.
The Longley Bridge, 1863, also called the Samuel Head Bridge, crosses the Trout River north of the village.
The Hopkins Bridge, 1875, stands over the Montgomery town line in Enosburg. The bridge once connected Enosburg Post Office with East Berkshire.