I was rolling down a back road in Wayland Mass last winter in the rental when lo and behold

 

Next to Rt. 102 northeast of Chester NH today...

All the timber is from within 500 yards of where the bridge is



More (color) pix later

I might dig the workboots out and pitch in tomorrow.

Up with the roof!

 

Here's pictures from my visit to Bartonsville Bridge (1870) last year.
I also visited it this July with my wife, our doggies and my buddy Nate.
It was one of my favorite bridges.



I hope everyone here made it through Hurricane Irene safely.

Bartonsville Bridge didn't.

I hope it didn't take out Worrall Bridge downstream. They just restored it last year.



This video was shot from the other side of the bridge than where the HHR shots were.

 

That's a shame to see the destruction of a beautiful old bridge, but sadly lots of folks up and down the east coast are finding things destroyed, or gone without a trace.

Maybe someday the state will replace it with a replica bridge instead of one of those nameless ugly two lane concrete affairs.

 

That's the most likely. They love their WCBs up there.

It won't have the original adze, hew & saw marks and they lost 140 years of grafitti but it'll probably be wooden covered again if they can.

There's video of Queechee WCB getting flooded on TWC. They say it's partially destroyed.

It has a waterfall a couple of dozen feet upriver that's usually about a 12' to 15' drop.
It looks like a 3' drop on the TWC video and it shows water flowing around the end and through it.



There's bound to be more lost WCBs in VT. and I know there's tragedy all over the East coast.
This is just a small part of the carnage but it's dear to me and I want to get involved in the rebuild if I can.

 

I'm sure you can volunteer your help at any of the bridges when the rebuilding begins, and I'm positive they'll be glad to have you.

Losing a part of history is always sad, but like I always say, you can replace things but not people.

 

 

That red one looks like one of the Northfield Vt bridges.
There are 5 of them that look almost identical.

EDIT - A tree crashed into Upper Cox Bridge in Northfield Falls

They'll get that fixed right up. It's at least a 10 minute walk to town from there or a dangerous detour in the Winter.



More edit - here's a link to WCAX in Vermont - There's a lot if info & links to what's happening there.

"I think we can cross it!"
"Don't try it dude."
"I'm going for it. Here, hold my beer...."

 

Sad to see the destruction. Hope parts can be found and reused. Glad the human loss was minimal. Feel for you folks in that area.

 

Jim Cantore (a Vermonter) has been broadcasting from the Bartonsville bridge site on TWC for a few hours.
There's good news for WCB lovers especially the heartbroken residents of Bartonsville.
The town of Rockingham had it insured for $1,000,000
It won't bring back the history or romance but they'll probably have another WCB built by Fall of 2012

The bridge washed up in a field about 1/4 mile downstream.
A resident said the trusses and floorboards seem ok but the whole thing was kinda squashed overall.
I'm sure they'll salvage and incorporate everything they can from the original.

There hasn't been much news on the Queechee Bridge but it was in a very busy downtown site so I'm sure it'll be replaced quickly.
It was in a nice setting in a somewhat affluent town so I'd bet it'll be wooden when it's replaced.

I know there's been catastrophy all along the East Coast and I'm certainly not promoting WCBs as more important than any other losses.
It's been hell for millions of people but this is a covered bridge thread so that's the focus here.

I hope y'all are alright