Swamp Meadow Bridge
Providence County, Foster. Built 1993, burned by arson months later, rebuilt 1994, 36 ft. long. Rhode Island's only covered bridge on a public road, built entirely by volunteers for the state's 350th birthday.
Swamp Meadow Bridge crosses Hemlock Brook on Central Pike in the town of Foster, and it holds a simple but absolute distinction: it's the only covered bridge on a public road anywhere in Rhode Island. The project began in 1986, when the Town of Foster decided to mark Rhode Island's 350th birthday by building a covered bridge over an existing steel span, using Town lattice trusses based on Ithiel Town's 1820 patent. Providence Water Supply donated the wood, designer Jed Dixon drew up the plans, and volunteers did all the construction work themselves after the Rhode Island Department of Transportation finally approved the project in 1992.
The bridge was dedicated with celebration on May 23, 1993 — only to be burned down by vandals less than four months later, on September 11 of that same year. Foster's town council wasted no time: just twelve days after the fire, the council approved construction of a new bridge, which was dedicated on November 5, 1994. That rebuilt structure is the one still standing today, maintained through a private fund overseen by nearby Borders Farm Preservation — a genuinely community-driven bridge that survived its own destruction to become a permanent Rhode Island landmark.