About

The Worrall Covered Bridge carries Williams Road, a dirt road a short distance north of Vermont Route 103, over the Williams River in Rockingham. It is a single-span, one-lane Town lattice truss bridge. The Vermont Covered Bridge Society lists it at 83 feet, and Wikipedia gives an 82 foot span with a total length of 87 feet.

History

Sanford Granger, a local master builder, built the bridge. The Vermont Covered Bridge Society dates it to 1868 and says the new bridge was very nearly lost in the Flood of 1869, while Wikipedia gives 1870. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 16, 1973. Daniel's Construction of Ascutney renovated it from fall 2009 to summer 2010. During Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 it was struck by the roof of the Bartonsville bridge, which had been swept away, and it needed significant repairs before it could reopen. Flooding on July 10, 2023 damaged the bridge again, and about a year later the town decided to repair it with FEMA funds.

Design

The bridge uses the Town lattice truss, a web of crisscrossed planks. Its stone abutments have been reinforced with concrete and its road bed with laminated beams. The road bed is 14 feet wide, enough for one lane.

Visiting

The bridge is on Williams Road, just north of Vermont Route 103 in Rockingham. After inspecting it following the 2023 flood, the Vermont Agency of Transportation cleared it to reopen.

Sources: Worrall Covered Bridge (Wikipedia), Worrall Covered Bridge (Vermont Covered Bridge Society), Rockingham begins process of rebuilding its damaged covered bridges (The Commons)

Photo: Sfoskett, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.