About
The Miller's Run Covered Bridge, also called the Bradley Covered Bridge, carries Center Street over Millers Run in Lyndon Center, north of central Lyndon. It is a single-span queenpost truss bridge 56 feet long and 17.5 feet wide, with a 15-foot roadway and a cantilevered sidewalk on the east side. It is open to vehicles.
History
E. H. Stone built the bridge in 1878. It was the last of Vermont's 19th-century covered bridges to carry a numbered state highway, first Vermont Route 122 and later Route 122 Alternate. An overheight truck damaged its south portal in 1973. In 1995, after the state proposed removing it, townspeople pushed to keep it, and it was taken apart and rebuilt on a steel support structure, reusing the original trusses and adding a pedestrian walkway. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 13, 1977. Box trucks continue to strike it; in 2024 Lyndon's town administrator said it is hit about five times a year.
Design
The queenpost truss uses two vertical posts joined by a horizontal beam. Since 1995 the wooden deck has rested on steel beams, with the original queenpost trusses kept.
Visiting
The bridge is on Center Street in Lyndon Center and carries vehicle traffic. The sidewalk on the east side lets pedestrians cross separately.
Sources: Bradley Covered Bridge (Wikipedia), Miller's Run Covered Bridge (Vermont Covered Bridge Society), WCAX, Vt. town struggles to stop trucks hitting covered bridge
Location
Center Street, Lyndon, VermontSimilar Bridges in category
Explore More
Spade Farm Covered Bridge
Ferrisburgh, Addison County. Built c. 1850, 85 ft over a storm drainage ditch. Moved in 1958 from Old Hollow Road in North Ferrisburgh to Sam Spade's farm.
Pulp Mill Covered Bridge
Middlebury and Weybridge, Addison County. Built c. 1820, 199 ft over Otter Creek. A double-barreled, two-lane covered bridge that still carries Seymour Street traffic.
Halpin Covered Bridge
Middlebury, Addison County. Built 1850, 66 ft over the Muddy Branch of the New Haven River. At about 41 ft above the stream, it is Vermont's highest covered bridge above a stream bed.