Connecticut Water Trails Association
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Connecticut Water Trails Association |
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Connecticut Water Trails Program History Of Connecticut's Water Trails Connecticut's Covered Bridges
A Covered Bridge.
The timber structure commands attention, set against an idyllic backdrop of woods that line the banks of a gurgling river.
Its wood creaks with each car crossing, reminiscent of a time when horse-drawn carriages, rather than SUVs, crossed its planks.
Covered bridges were once indispensable to American communities, numbering in the thousands. They connected towns and villages, enabling people to better communicate and exchange goods and services.
There are only three remaining covered bridges in Connecticut, a state where hundreds once existed.
They’ve become hollow relics visited by travelers looking for a respite from the world’s web of steel and concrete.
But a closer look at any one of the covered
bridges, tells a story of each area.
It uses a revolutionary lattice truss design
that allowed builders to make longer, stronger spans. Ithiel Town, a
Connecticut architect and bridge engineer, patented the design, which has
been used widely across the nation.
The design was also used for Bull’s Bridge in
Kent, about 14 miles southeast of West Cornwall on Route 7. The bridge is
the only other covered bridge in Connecticut that carries car traffic. It
was built as a result of the burgeoning iron industry in northwestern
Connecticut during the 18th and 19th centuries. The iron ore in
Connecticut was used to build railroad car wheels and it helped fuel the
American Revolutionary War.
Local historians say the bridge was constructed
by Jacob Bull, the owner of an iron furnace and saw mill, and his son,
Isaac, in 1760, so wagons could get across the Housatonic River to haul
pig iron from his foundry to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. His saw mill and furnace
provided the timber and hardware to build the bridge, which became part of
a major highway from Hartford to Newburgh, N.Y., used by the likes of
George Washington, according to the town of Kent’s Web site.
The bridge was one of several built across the
gorge over the years as flooding and ice took their toll. The present
bridge was built in 1842 and has become a tourist stop along scenic Route
7 as well as a starting point for hikers traversing a leg of the 52-mile
Appalachian Trail through Connecticut.
Looking across to East Hampton in central Connecticut is Comstock Bridge, which is situated in a public park over the Salmon River, just north of Route 16. It’s the only pedestrian bridge of the three and once connected the main road between East Hampton and Colchester when it was built in 1873.
Today, the area serves as a fishing hole and picnic area. The bridge was renovated in the 1930s, when wooden gates and siding were added, and again in the 1970s, when steel plates were integrated to reinforce parts of the bridge.
Connecticut Covered Bridges:
West Cornwall Bridge - Route 128 over Housatonic River in Cornwall
Bull’s Bridge - off Route 7 over the Housatonic River
in Kent
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