About

The Willard Covered Bridges are a pair of covered bridges that carry Mill Street over the Ottauquechee River in the village of North Hartland, linked by a small island in the river. The east bridge, the historic Willard Covered Bridge, is a single-span Town lattice truss built about 1870, 125 feet long overall with a truss length of 123 feet. The west bridge is a modern covered bridge built in 2001 and listed at 81 feet. Both carry local vehicle traffic.

History

The east bridge, sometimes called the Old Bridge, dates to about 1870. It was renovated in 1953 and repaired in 1979, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 28, 1973. A second covered bridge, the New Bridge, was built at the west crossing around 1872 and was destroyed by the 1938 hurricane. A steel bridge replaced it, and the present west covered bridge was built in 2001.

Design

Both bridges use the Town lattice truss, a web of crisscrossed planks. The east bridge rests on stone abutments faced in concrete, is 21 feet wide with a 16.5 foot one-lane roadway, and has a standing seam metal roof.

Visiting

The bridges are on Mill Street in North Hartland, reached from U.S. Route 5 by way of Evarts Road. One visitor found little parking before the first bridge or after the second and parked on the island between them.

Sources: Willard Covered Bridge (Wikipedia), Willard Covered Bridge (Covered Spans of Yesteryear), Exploring the Willard Twin Covered Bridges (Jeff Foliage)

Photo: Gianina Lindsey, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.