About

The Mill Covered Bridge carries Spring Road over the First Branch White River on the north side of Tunbridge village, in Orange County. It stands among the buildings of the former Hayward and Kibby Mill, west of Vermont Route 110. The present bridge is a 2000 replica of a multiple kingpost truss bridge built about 1883. Wikipedia gives the length as 72.5 feet, with a single lane roadway 15.5 feet wide.

History

Local carpenter Arthur G. Adams built the original bridge about 1883. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, and in 1992 it became a contributing property of the Hayward and Kibby Mill historic district.

On March 4, 1999, ice gathered against the bridge, its chords broke and it shifted off its abutment. Officials planned to brace it with two 100 foot I-beams, but the equipment did not arrive in time, and on March 5 the ice jam pushed the bridge into the river. Crews salvaged about 90 percent of the lumber, and the broken roof pieces were burned.

The select board accepted a $175,000 bid from Daniels Construction of Ascutney to build a replacement with the same truss design. Four teams of oxen pulled the new bridge into place in July 2000, and it opened that month.

Design

A multiple kingpost truss is a row of vertical posts with diagonal braces leaning toward the center of the span. Coveredbridges.net notes that the trusses are reinforced with wrought iron rods. Plans for the replacement called for southern pine framing, native hemlock roof boards, wide pine siding, walkways on both sides, an exterior resembling the old bridge, and raising the Spring Road abutment by two feet.