About

Best's Covered Bridge, also called the Swallows bridge, carries Churchill Road over Mill Brook in West Windsor, just south of Vermont Route 44 and about 8 miles west of Windsor village. The single-span bridge was built in 1889 and has a truss length of 37 feet. Its one-lane roadway is 12.5 feet wide, and it is open to vehicles.

History

Wikipedia credits Stephen F. Hammond (1836 to 1913), a local wheelwright from Brownsville, as the builder, and notes that some sources credit Amasa W. Swallow, possibly because of a misread 1889 town report. The Vermont Covered Bridge Society lists the builder as A. W. Swallows. The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 2, 1973. A 1973 flood weakened the original stone abutments, which were then strengthened with concrete. The bridge was restored in 1991.

Design

The bridge is a tied arch rather than a conventional truss. Its chords hang from iron rods attached to a low laminated arch, and a post-and-beam shed covers the structure. The arches were originally five planks thick, and two more planks were later added to the bows. It is one of three remaining tied arch covered bridges in Vermont.