Kenyon Bridge - Blacksmith Shop Covered Bridge, Cornish New Hampshire
Kenyon Bridge, also known as Blacksmith Shop Covered Bridge, is an example of Multiple Kingpost truss type Covered Bridge.
Designed and built by James Tasker (1826-1903) of Cornish, New Hampshire, in 1882.
The name of the bridge comes from the Blacksmith shop which was operated nearby in the area called "Slab City" by John Fellows (1798-1884)
James Tasker is believed to have built the following bridges:
Kenyon Bridge, Cornish, NH
Blow-Me-Down Bridge, Cornish, NH
Dingleton Bridge, Cornish, NH
Meriden Bridge, Cornish, NH
Cornish-Windsor Bridge (with Bela Fletcher)
Stoughton Bridge, Windsor County, VT
Salmond's, Windsor County, VT
The National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges, World Guide to Covered Bridges Number 29-10-01; New Hampshire Department of Public Works and Highways, Covered Bridge Survey Number 096/092.
An excellent example of a multiple Kingpost Truss type all wood, covered bridge. It is a single span; the outside length is 96 feet and it is l4½ feet wide; the deck or roadway length is 90 feet by 13 feet wide.
There are twenty-eight panels with twenty-nine posts on each side. The bridge rests on selected stone dry-laid abutments.
The High gabled roof is covered with sheet metal. It is sheathed on the exterior with plain vertical butted boards, up about 1/3 of the way from the lower chord. The lower and upper chords are joined to the posts by iron bolts. (some of the exterior sheathing is missing}
The two end panels on the south side are missing their diagonal braces. The original roof was covered with wood shingles.
The portal is flat round corner in style and is sheathed in vertical paneling of butted boards
Interior looking southeast (1974)
