Covered Bridges on Two Wheels
A photographic journey to Vermont's Covered Bridges
Pine Brook Bridge
 June 2017 |  May 2011 |
|---|---|
 June 2017 |  June 2017 |
Current Status: Open
Location: Waitsfield, on North Road
Crosses: Pine Brook
GPS: 44.205862N, 72.792015W
Built: 1872 Length: 48.5 feet
Truss Design: Kingpost
WGN*: VT-12-12 NRHP**: Yes
* WGN: World Guide to Covered Bridges Number
**NRHP: Listed on National Register of Historic Places
Not far from scenic Route 100 in Waitsfield sits the Pine Brook Covered bridge. Also known as the Wilder Bridge, various sources date this bridge to 1872, not 1870 as indicated on the portal signs.
While not far from Waitsfield Village and the constant traffic of Route 100, it is nestled in a quiet copse of woods surrounded by farm fields. It is one of only a few kingpost truss bridges that still exist in the state.
In the mid 1970's the bridge had fallen into disrepair, but was still in service. Posts were stuck in the streambed and jammed up under the trusses to allow the bridge to remain open. Milton Graton was called upon to renovate the bridge. In order to continue to meet the demands of modern traffic, the trusses would have needed modifications that, if carried out, would have altered the authenticity of the bridge.
He instead proposed that steel beams be placed under the deck, but rather than directly support the bridge, they were placed just below (but not touching) the deck. This allowed the bridge to continue carrying out its mission as designed, but also provided a fail-safe. Larger (or over-sized) loads would deflect the floor beams enough to contact the added steel supports and thus mitigate the strain on the trusses. However, an inspection of the underside of the bridge will reveal that the gaps between the floor beams and the steel beams have been filled with shims and thus the floor of the bridge is pretty much supported solely by steel now.
One oddly particular repair that needed to be performed is the clamping of one of the kingposts which has split. This had to be done because the post has a spiral grain that naturally weakened the beam. This would not necessarily have been easily noticed by the original builder.
Visiting the bridge:
While the bridge is not far from Route 100, you'll have to travel about 1/4 of a mile on a dirt road.
There is no parking, but the road is quite wide here on either side of the bridge and thus you should be able to park on the side. Traffic is minimal, the bridge short enough, and wide enough, to make crossing on foot and inspecting the construction to be a fairly safe endeavor.
On my first visit there was dense vegetation on the many trees surrounding the bridge, so getting good photographs from the side was impossible. Since then, some vegetation has been removed, making photographing a little easier.