Mount Orne Covered Bridge

About

The Mount Orne Covered Bridge carries a town road across the Connecticut River between South Lancaster, New Hampshire, and Lunenburg, Vermont. It is the only crossing directly between the two towns, which shared the cost of building it and still split its maintenance equally. Because the state line follows the low-water mark on the Vermont bank, most of the bridge is in New Hampshire, and the boundary sign stands 32 feet inside the west portal. The bridge is open to traffic.

History

The bridge replaced an earlier toll bridge owned by the Union Bridge Company, which most sources say was destroyed in the 1905 flood. Builders from Berlin, Connecticut (recorded as the Berlin Iron Bridge Company and as the Berlin Construction Company) completed it in 1911 for a reported $6,678, using yellow pine timber precut and assembled on site.

In 1969 a truck loaded with road salt broke through the deck and landed on the river ice. The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 12, 1976. New Hampshire rehabilitated it in 1983, closing it on July 5 and rededicating it on November 23. Tractor-trailers damaged it in 2006, 2010 and 2012, and an oversized vehicle struck it on November 10, 2023. After repairs and the addition of crash bars, signs and road markings, it reopened on February 21, 2024.

Design

The bridge has two spans of 133 and 134 feet, 267 feet overall (some sources give 266), resting on stone abutments and a central stone pier. Each span is carried by a pair of wood-and-iron Howe trusses. With the Columbia Bridge upstream, completed in 1912, it is one of only two Howe truss highway bridges in New Hampshire, and the two were the last covered bridges built on public highways in New Hampshire and Vermont in the historic period.

Visiting

From Lancaster village, follow NH Route 135 about 5 miles southwest and turn west onto Mt. Orne Road. On the Vermont side the bridge meets River Road in Lunenburg. Clearance is 12 feet, 9 inches, and the load limit is six tons.

Sources: Mount Orne Covered Bridge (Connecticut River Joint Commissions), Mount Orne Covered Bridge (Vermont Covered Bridge Society), Mt. Orne bridge reopens (Vermont Covered Bridge Society), New Hampshire Covered Bridges (Dale J. Travis), Mount Orne Covered Bridge (Wikipedia)

Photo: Magicpiano, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.