Covered Bridges on Two Wheels
A photographic journey to Vermont's Covered Bridges
Scott Bridge
Current Status: Pedestrian Only
Location: Townshend, off Route 30
Crosses: West River
GPS: 43.048708N, 72.696382W
Built: 1870 Length: 277 feet
Truss Design: Town lattice, kingpost
WGN*: VT-13-13 NRHP**: Yes
* WGN: World Guide to Covered Bridges Number
**NRHP: Listed on National Register of Historic Places
In his book, Covered Bridges of Vermont, Ed Barna refers to the Scott Bridge as a "goofy, lovable bridge". I guess that depends on your point of view, but it is certainly unique. There is nothing else like it in the state, and I daresay anywhere else.
There's a lot of history to this bridge, both past and present.
First, it's origin. This was another bridge built in 1870, at the same time as many others in the area after a large snow-melt flood in the spring of 1869 destroyed several covered bridges.
It consists of three spans, totaling 277 feet in length... the longest covered bridge entirely within the state (the Cornish-Windsor Bridge is longer, but shared with New Hampshire). The longest of the three spans is constructed with Town lattice trusses and is 166 feet long... the longest single span in the State. The other two spans are each kingpost truss bridges and were initially not covered. These two spans do not even cross the river, but were added to cross over a dry gully. They were covered only 3 years after they were first built.
Probably right from the outset, the long Town lattice span was doomed to failure, being inadequate in strength. Two arches consisting of laminated planks were installed at some unknown point, but as you can see from the photos in my slideshow, one of them actually warped and inverted.
In the mid 1950s, the bridge was bad enough that it was closed to vehicular traffic. It remained open to pedestrians so that children could cross to a school bus stop. In 1981 a pier was added under the Town lattice span for additional support. Despite that, the bridge continued to succumb to failure and was completely closed in 2012. Emergency stabilization was put in place to prevent imminent collapse later that year.
By the end of 2015, funds had been secured to rehabilitate the bridge. The $2.2 project was completed with a ribbon cutting ceremony on July 23, 2017. However, the bridge will remain closed to vehicular traffic. Since the floor will not need to support vehicles, they simply installed pressure treated decking. Windows were placed in the Town lattice span to look out onto the river.
Visiting the bridge:
The Scott Bridge is easy to locate just off Route 30. While there is no parking directly adjacent to the bridge on the east side, there is an official turnout just to the south.
Before the bridge was reopened to pedestrian traffic, the only way to see it from the other side was to go around via Dam Road which crosses the Townshend Reservoir flood control dam. This can be interesting as the roadway first crosses high above a spillway via a one-lane metal-grate bridge. The western side of the bridge has plenty of room to park if you want to go around. It's also safer as there is little traffic over there.
Since a large portion of the bridge is over dry land, this gives you a great opportunity to investigate the underside of a covered bridge.