About
The Upper Falls Covered Bridge, also called the Downers Covered Bridge, carries Upper Falls Road over the Black River in Weathersfield, just south of Vermont Route 131 and about 1.9 miles north of Route 106 in Perkinsville. The single-span Town lattice truss bridge is 120 feet long, with a 4 foot gabled overhang at each end. It dates to 1840 and is open to vehicles.
History
James Tasker of Claremont, New Hampshire, built the bridge. Most sources give 1840, though the Wikipedia infobox lists 1870. The bridge was in poor condition when it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 28, 1973. It closed for renovation in summer 2007 and reopened to traffic in late January 2008 after $1.2 million of work that included new chords, floor system, roof and siding. Work on the abutments was scheduled for the following spring.
Design
The bridge uses the Town lattice truss, a web of crisscrossed planks. It is 18.5 feet wide overall with a 15 foot, one-lane roadway. One abutment is modern concrete and the other is dry-laid stone faced in concrete.
Visiting
The bridge is on Upper Falls Road, just south of Vermont Route 131 in Weathersfield. It carries one lane of vehicle traffic.
Sources: Upper Falls Covered Bridge (Wikipedia), Upper Falls bridge reopens (Vermont Covered Bridge Society), Upper Falls or Downers (Dale J. Travis)
Photo: devinchi42, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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