About
The Silk Road Covered Bridge, also known as the Silk, Locust Grove and Robinson bridge, carries Silk Road over the Walloomsac River, roughly midway between downtown Bennington and North Bennington. Silk Road connects Vermont Routes 67A and 279. It is a Town lattice truss bridge 88 feet long, with a single 15-foot lane, and it is open to vehicles.
History
The bridge was probably built about 1840, likely by Benjamin Sears, from a family of regional bridge builders. A bridge has stood at this crossing since the 1790s. It had extensive repairs in 1952 and a new nail-laminated plank floor about 1985. In 1991 Gilbert Newbury restored it for $100,000, replacing roof boards and shingles and repairing lattice members and chords. More roof repairs, guardrails and signs followed in 1993. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 28, 1973. Tropical Storm Irene damaged it on August 28, 2011, and it was repaired and reopened.
Design
The Town lattice truss is a web of crisscrossed planks. The southern abutment has been rebuilt in concrete; the northern abutment is original dry stone capped with concrete.
Visiting
The bridge is on Silk Road and carries one lane of vehicle traffic.
Sources: Silk Covered Bridge (Wikipedia), Silk Road Bridge (Vermont Covered Bridge Society)
Photo: Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Location
Silk Road, Bennington, VermontSimilar Bridges in category
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