Orne Covered Bridge, Coventry Vermont

Date added: June 23, 2024

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The Orne Covered Bridge is the only covered wood bridge supported by Paddleford trusses in Vermont which remains on its original site and carries a public road. (There are two other covered bridges with Paddleford trusses in the state, one in Lyndon and another in Irasburg, but both have been moved from their original sites and are now owned privately.) The builder and date of construction of the Orne Bridge are uncertain; one source states that E. P. Colton built it in 1879, and another states that John D. Colton built it in 1881.

The Orne Bridge ranks among the finest surviving examples of vernacular covered bridge architecture in Vermont. The bridge retains to an extraordinary extent its original design, structure, and materials. The exterior displays finely proportioned arched portals whose graceful curvilinear forms complement the rigid angularity of the trusses. Simultaneously the bold criss-cross pattern of the partly exposed north truss provides an attractive contrast to the narrow vertical siding which covers the lower part of the truss.

The covered bridges of Vermont are among its most cherished and symbolic historic resources. About one hundred of the bridges still stand in the state, the highest concentration by area of covered bridges in the United States.

Bridge Description

The Orne Covered Bridge consists of a single span supported by two flanking timber Paddleford trusses. The trusses have not been reinforced by any of the various devices added to many other covered bridges in Vermont. The structure rests on abutments built of irregular stone laid dry and later faced with concrete.

The Orne Bridge is 87 feet long at floor level. The upper ends of the side walls flare outward to meet the gable ends, which overhang the floor three feet at each portal. The bridge is 17 feet wide and has a 14-foot roadway. The wood floor, which consists of planks laid flat and parallel to the trusses, begins fo feet inside the west portal and six feet inside the east portal; the approaches are gravel.

On the exterior, the timbers pegged and bolted together to form the trusses (and side walls) of the bridge are sheathed with unpainted flush boards hung vertically. The boards rise only about half the height of the north wall, leaving the upper half of the truss exposed (apparently to provide visibility of the sharp curve in the road at the east end of the bridge). On the south wall, the boards rise nearly to the eaves, leaving only a strip opening along the top of the wall.

The gable ends are also sheathed with unpainted flush boards hung vertically. The portal openings are framed with segmental arches. The sheathing extends beyond the line of the side walls to form half-arches under the eaves. The medium-pitch gable roof is covered with standing seam metal sheeting.