Monday, March 18, 2019

Vermont Covered Bridges - Part 2

Most of the covered bridges I saw in Vermont seemed to be older bridges and from what information I could find on most of them, most were built before 1915, with the majority built in the mid to late 1800s.  That makes it very impressive to me, that not only are they still standing but most are still in use every day.  It was pretty interesting to drive across them and think about how they must have been built back in the horse and buggy days and to think about how much has changed since then.

Here are a couple of bridges that are starting to look their age, but still in use.



Not all of the bridges were still in use though and just taking a look at them you could see why.  I think I found 3 or 4 that were no longer in use which is still very impressive when you realize Vermont has over 100 covered bridges in the state.


This bridge might have been the oldest one I drove across on my trip and it was still in great shape.  According to the plaque on this bridge, it was originally built in 1836.  I wish there was more information about each bridge posted near them but I don't think they are really treated as landmarks and just used as normal every day bridges.


This was another of the few bridges I saw that had a plaque on it showing when it was first built.  1842 in this case, if you can't read the sign.


This next bridge was different from most of the others I saw because the sides were open to the weather and you could actually see out as you drove across it.  I was surprised to see that most of the covered bridges were totally walled in or that they would only have one or two small windows.  I'm trying to remember how many I saw that were open on the side like this one and can only remember seeing 3 maybe 4 that were open.



I left all of these photos in black and white as I really think it conveys the age and time these were built. Well, that and the fact that the trees were bare and it was pretty bleak when I took them.   

When I first drove up on this bridge it first appeared to be much newer than any I had seen so far, but then as I got closer and read the sign,  it totally cracked me up and made me realize it's been around a very long time too.  I wonder what that $2 would translate to in today's dollar.



And just because I really liked this shot in color, I'm going to add one bonus photo of this same bridge looking back towards the small waterfall that you can see on the right-hand side of the first photo of it.


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