About

The Cilley Covered Bridge, also called the Lower Bridge, carries Howe Lane over the First Branch of the White River about a mile south of Tunbridge village. It is a single-span multiple kingpost truss with a truss length of about 68 feet, built in 1883, and it carries one lane of vehicle traffic. It is one of five 19th-century covered bridges in Tunbridge.

History

The Vermont Covered Bridge Society (VCBS) credits Arthur C. Adams as the builder and notes that the bridge was named for the nearby Cilley family and cost $523.35. An engineering study was done in August 2003, and restoration work was completed in 2006. The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 10, 1974.

Design

A multiple kingpost truss is a row of vertical posts with diagonal braces leaning toward the center of the span. The Cilley trusses are skewed, so the bridge forms a parallelogram in plan. It has vertical board siding, a metal roof and square portals, and it rests on stone abutments, one of them faced in concrete. Two square window openings on the south side improve visibility at a sharp turn in the road.

Visiting

The bridge is on Howe Lane, a side loop off Vermont Route 110. It is open to vehicles as a one-lane crossing. It is one of six covered bridges along a 7-mile stretch of the First Branch.

Sources: Cilley Covered Bridge (Wikipedia), Cilley Bridge (Vermont Covered Bridge Society)

Photo: Ahale, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.