Bull's Bridge
Litchfield County, Kent. Built 1842, 109 ft. long. One of only two covered bridges left in Connecticut still carrying vehicle traffic, reputedly crossed by George Washington in 1781.
Bull's Bridge takes its name from Jacob and Isaac Bull, who built the first crossing here in 1760 to move pig iron from their own furnace and sawmill to Poughkeepsie, New York. The current bridge dates to 1842, built on a Town lattice truss said to have been supervised by Ithiel Town himself, the Connecticut-born architect who patented the design in 1820. Timber supports have been added in both the 19th and 20th centuries to keep the span sound.
The bridge carries a genuine piece of Revolutionary War history. Written accounts, including an entry in George Washington's own expense records, describe him crossing the Housatonic River here in 1781 on his way to confer with French forces in Newport, Rhode Island — the ledger even notes the cost of pulling a horse out of the river at "Mr. Bull's bridge." Today it's one of only three public highway covered bridges left standing in Connecticut, and one of just two still open to motor vehicles, carrying a single lane over the Housatonic on the state's western edge near the New York border.