About
The Howe Covered Bridge carries Belknap Brook Road over the First Branch of the White River in southern Tunbridge, just east of Vermont Route 110. It is a single-span multiple kingpost truss about 75 feet long, built in 1879, with a one-lane roadway about 13 feet wide. It is one of five surviving covered bridges in Tunbridge.
History
The Vermont Covered Bridge Society (VCBS) lists the builders as Mudget, Wells and Tenny. Citing the Covered Spans of Yesteryear website, VCBS records deck repairs in 1994 and new roof and knee braces in 2002, and it notes a rehabilitation in 2011. The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 10, 1974. VCBS describes the bridge as privately owned and as the gateway to the Howe family farm.
Design
A multiple kingpost truss is a row of vertical posts with diagonal braces leaning toward the center of the span. Here the trusses are timber pieces bolted together, with vertical iron rods for added stability. The bridge rests on dry-laid stone abutments extended upriver by concrete wingwalls. It has vertical board siding and a gabled metal roof, and the portal siding extends partway inside to shelter the truss ends.
Visiting
The bridge is on Belknap Brook Road, just east of VT 110 in southern Tunbridge. It carries one lane of the road over the river. VCBS notes that the portals are decorated with flowers set in antique cattle feeding buckets.
Sources: Howe Covered Bridge (Wikipedia), Howe Bridge (Vermont Covered Bridge Society)
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