Johnsonville Village Bridge
Middlesex County, Johnsonville Village (East Haddam). Built 1976, 60 ft. long. Also called the Bicentennial Bridge, built by hand as part of an effort to revive a 19th-century mill village.
The Johnsonville Village Bridge, better known locally as the Bicentennial Bridge, crosses the Moodus River in Johnsonville, a once-thriving 19th-century mill community built around a cluster of twine mills powered by the river. The village had fallen into decline by the mid-20th century until businessman Raymond Schmitt bought the property in the early 1960s and set about restoring it as a tourist destination, relocating historic buildings from around New England to recreate a 19th-century village atmosphere.
The bridge itself was part of that revival, built starting July 1, 1976 — the American Bicentennial, which gave the structure its popular name — by Thomas Kronenberger Sr. and a six-man crew. It combines a multiple kingpost truss with a supporting arch, with the main trusses assembled on land and lifted into place by crane, framed with timber from the Charles Parker Company in Meriden and clad in historic lumber found in storage near the build site. Privately owned and part of the Johnsonville Village property today, it stands as a hand-built tribute to the older bridges it was designed to evoke.
