Waterloo Covered Bridge, Waterloo New Hampshire

Date added: April 07, 2024

Do you have an update on the current status of this structure? Please tell us about it in the comments below.

In 1839 the town of Warner laid out a road in the Newmarket section of Warner, which appears to be the same road as the current Newmarket Road. As this road is divided by the Warner River, it is reasonable to assume that at least one of the many bridges built by the town of Warner in the early nineteenth century spanned this crossing. (As with the Dalton Bridge, it is difficult to know which bridge crossed where, for they were mostly attached to place and personal names which no longer exist and for which there is no good documentation.) In 1857 a bridge referred to as "Waterloo Bridge" was repaired for $78.00. In 1860 $473.65 was paid by the town of Warner for building Waterloo Bridge. The bulk of this amount was paid to Dutton Woods for the actual building of the bridge with lesser amounts being paid to William Bean, William B. Davis, Eleazor Davis, and John Colby for related tasks. The small cost of the bridge relative to other bridges being built at the time by the town of Warner seems to indicate that the abutments were merely repaired and not new, and that the bridge might have been heavily rebuilt instead of being entirely new which would concur with local tradition regarding the bridge.

At the time of the bridge's construction or possible reconstruction, Waterloo Village had several mills, the ruins and basement walls of which are visible from the bridge; the village had grown up around these mills and a railroad line that had a small station near the north end of the Waterloo Bridge. With the abandonment of the mills and the railroad line, only a small rural population is left which the bridge continues to serve. Waterloo Bridge provides one lane passage with no posted weight limits.

Bridge Description

The Waterloo Bridge spans the Warner River near Waterloo Village connecting the town-owned New market Road on either side.

The bridge consists of one span of Town lattice truss constructed of 11" x 2½" members bolted to other lattice members at their crossings. Each lattice member is joined in this manner to five opposite-leaning members. The upper and lower chords are each made up of two members (each member 8" x 6") separated by a five-inch space through which the lattice passes. Lattice members are both wooden pinned and iron bolted to the chords. On the inside face of each north-leaning lattice member and on the outside face of each south-leaning member are attached boards of the same size as the members themselves. These boards are cut at an angle to fit flush against the faces of the chords, but are not attached to the chords and provide extra support largely by bearing pressure. The truss walls are laterally braced by thirteen beams extended across the top chords, perpendicular to the roadbed; these beams are bolted to the chords. Beneath these beams, five sets of crossed iron tension rods connected through the top chords to provide further bracing. The same arrangement provides lateral bracing for the bottom chords.

The lattice truss is set on 11" square timbers at each corner which in turn rest on concrete footings at the top of each abutment. The abutments are rectangular and constructed out of split and irregular stone laid up without mortar.

The bridge has an overall roof and roadbed length of 84'5" and 76'5" respectively, with a vertical clearance of 12'. The bridge has an overall width of 16'9" and a roadbed of 13'9" (passable width of 12'11" due to guard rails). The roadbed is of boards laid lengthwise in the direction of the road and spiked to 11" thick supports that sit on top of the bottom chord.

The roof is of corrugated metal set on rafters that rise from the outside member of the top chord and are strengthened by braces from the truss walls to the rafters at a point near the peak of the roof. The roof, supported by the top chord, overhangs each end of the bridge by four feet but is not connected by a cutback. Both walls and portals are sheathed in vertical boarding being allowed to weather gray. Each sidewall has three windows and is sheathed to a height twenty inches below the top chord; this opening is protected by a roof overhang on each side of two feet.

The bridge has been assigned the following numbers: 29-07-04 in the World Guide to Covered Bridges published by the National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges; 157-087 by the New Hampshire Department of Public Works and Highways 13 by the New Hampshire Department of Resources and Economic Development.

The concrete footings on which the truss rests, the added members of the lattice that are not incorporated into the truss system, but merely brace it on its sides, and the new wood exterior and metal roof are alterations that were made in 1970 when the bridge was extensively repaired, at a cost of $16,000 under the state Town Bridge Aid Program.