Covered Bridges on Two Wheels
A photographic journey to Vermont's Covered Bridges
Salmond Bridge
 August 2014 |  August 2014 |
|---|---|
 August 2014 |  August 2014 |
Current Status: Open
Location: Weathersfield, on Henry Gould Road
Crosses: Sherman Brook
GPS: 43.426854N, 72.488362W
Built: c1875 Length: 53 feet
Truss Design: Multiple Kingpost
WGN*: VT-14-05 NRHP**: not eligible
* WGN: World Guide to Covered Bridges Number
**NRHP: Listed on National Register of Historic Places
Now situated on a back road with little traffic, the story of the Salmond Bridge is both a cautionary tale and one of hope for the future of Vermont's covered bridges.
In 1959-60, the Army Corps of Engineers constructed a flood control area along the Black River. The Salmond Bridge, originally located over the river south of Stoughton Pond needed to be moved. A new home was found for it in Reading, Vermont where it would have replaced a stringer bridge between two homes. A Reading selectman convinced the board to reject the offer, even though it was costing the town nothing. The bridge was literally on the way to its new location when the move was halted. Instead, it was placed on dry land in the Amsden section of Weathersfield.
There, the bridge was put into service as a town storage shed. It's floor was removed, windows cut into the side and its siding covered with imitation brick (what? why?). There it languished until the mid-1980's when a committee of townsfolk convinced the town to abandon its new idea of moving the bridge to the town dump to serve as a glass recycling shed. Despite the fact that the town's books were running in the red, two separate votes affirmed the decision to move it someplace other then the dump. With help from diversion of some federal revenue sharing money, a small grant from the State, and the balance in donations, the bridge was disassembled and moved to its current location in 1986. As part of the resurrection, a new floor system was installed in an authentic manner using the trusses as support, with no supplemental steel beams. A year later, a small park was established at the site on land donated by the owner, a former town clerk, in memory of her husband.
This is one of those instances where the people of a town banded together to realize the value of preserving a piece of Vermont history. The town government itself had doomed the bridge into anonymous servitude, to be eventually forgotten. The fact that someone had the foresight to save the bridge in the first place, is good. But what happened to it before being saved and rededicated is a shame. Something the people and government of the Town of Rutland should think about regarding the Twin Bridge which is currently suffering the same fate that the Salmond Bridge once did.
Visiting the bridge:
Despite being in a park-like setting, and despite what some other guides may report, on my visit the bridge was open to traffic.
While on a dirt road, it is located just off Route 131, so travel on dirt is minimal. I found the road in decent shape when approaching from the west, but past the bridge (on the east side of it), the road was not very good at all due to disuse.
The lack of traffic, and the fact that the bridge is unusually wide for a one-lane bridge makes visiting it quite safe and relaxing.