About
The Baltimore Covered Bridge stands in Eureka Schoolhouse Park off Vermont Route 11 in Springfield, next to the Eureka Schoolhouse. It originally crossed Great Brook in North Springfield, on the road leading to Baltimore, Vermont, and now spans a drainage ditch. The Town lattice truss bridge dates to 1870 and is about 45 feet long. It no longer carries a road and is open to pedestrians only.
History
Granville Leland and Dennis Allen built the bridge in 1870. Its twin, the Gassetts Covered Bridge, also crossed Great Brook but is now lost. The town closed the Baltimore bridge in 1967, when Milton Graton described it as badly twisted and no longer safe to use. In 1970 Graton Associates restored it and moved it 7 miles to its present site, removing the roof so it would clear other bridges along the route and reusing stones from the old crossing for the new abutment. The work was priced at $10,000, and a local committee raised $10,500. The bridge was rededicated in memory of U.S. Senator Ralph E. Flanders, who helped preserve both the bridge and the Eureka Schoolhouse, and of Milton Graton.
Design
The bridge uses the Town lattice truss, a web of crisscrossed planks. The Vermont Covered Bridge Society notes the careful upkeep of its roof and portal mouldings.
Visiting
The bridge is in Eureka Schoolhouse Park off Vermont Route 11 in Springfield. It is open to pedestrians only.
Sources: Baltimore Covered Bridge (Vermont Covered Bridge Society), Baltimore Covered Bridge (Wikipedia)
Photo: Just an image guy, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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