Williamsville Covered Bridge

Newfane, Windham County. Built c. 1870, 118 ft over the Rock River. A new lattice truss bridge built to the old one's dimensions replaced it in 2010.

Dover Road, Newfane, Vermont
National Register of Historic Places
County Windham
City/Town Newfane
c. 1870
GPS Coordinates 42.942778, -72.688056
Bridge Status Open to traffic
Crosses Rock River
Bridge Type/Truss Design Town Lattice
Length (feet) 118ft
Williamsville Covered Bridge in Newfane, Vermont

About

The Williamsville Covered Bridge carries Dover Road over the Rock River in Newfane, about 0.4 miles west of the village of Williamsville. It is a single-lane Town lattice truss bridge 118 feet long. The present structure is a 2010 replacement of a bridge that dated to about 1870.

History

The original bridge was built in the 1870s by an unknown builder, although the Vermont Agency of Transportation has dated it to about 1850. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 14, 1973. Over the years its wooden roadway supports were replaced with steel beams. By 2010 the old bridge had been rebuilt several times and much of it was rotting, so it was replaced with a new covered bridge built to the same dimensions, mostly of treated yellow pine with white oak running planks. Alpine Construction of Schuylerville, New York, did the work, which cost about $1.6 million and closed the crossing for about two months starting July 5, 2010. On April 30, 2025, a box truck struck the bridge and badly damaged it.

Design

The bridge uses the Town lattice truss, a web of crisscrossed planks, with two trusses carrying a single traffic lane.

Visiting

The bridge is on Dover Road, the main road west from Williamsville village. Newfane Selectboard minutes report that the deck replacement began in May 2026 and that repairs were completed by July 2026.

Sources: Williamsville Covered Bridge (Wikipedia), Williamsville covered bridge project close to completion (The Commons), Truck driver cited after allegedly hitting Vt. covered bridge (WCAX)

Photo: Stch2022, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Access and Listing Notes
Struck by a box truck April 30, 2025; deck replaced from May 2026 and repairs completed by July 2026.