Hectorville Covered Bridge, Montgomery Center Vermont
- Categories:
- Vermont
- Covered Bridges
- Town Lattice Truss
The Hectorville Covered Bridge crosses the South Branch of the Trout River near the hamlet from which it derives its name, south of Montgomery Center village. Five other covered wood bridges remain in the town of Montgomery, giving it the highest concentration of covered bridges by town in Vermont. Two brothers, Sheldon and Savannah Jewett of Montgomery, built all six of the bridges; the year of construction of the Hectorville Bridge is unknown. The Jewetts used Town lattice trusses in all of the bridges, which also share a common architectural design and similar dimensions (except for length).
Together with another bridge constructed by the Jewett brothers across the Trout River in the adjoining town of Enosburg, the Montgomery bridges constitute the most extensive surviving record of the work of any individual covered bridge builders who practiced their trade in Vermont. The complete inventory of bridges built by the Jewetts is unknown; Richard Sanders Allen writes that they built bridges "for more than thirty years." The brothers prepared timber for their bridges at their own mill, which stood in the West Hill district of Montgomery near one of the remaining bridges.
Bridge Description
The Hectorville Covered Bridge consists of a single span supported by two flanking timber Town lattice trusses. The structure has been reinforced by the addition to the inside of the trusses of two triangular laminated plank beams from which cables suspend a transverse beam to support the bottom chords near the midpoint of the clear span.
The Hectorville Bridge is 52.5 feet long overall and 19.5 feet wide; it has a 16-foot roadway. The wood floor consists of planks laid flat and perpendicular to the trusses, overlaid with two transverse strips of planks for driving surfaces. The structure rests on massive abutments built of irregular stone which have been faced with concrete. The abutments stand on prominent outcrops of bedrock.
On the exterior, the heavy planks pegged together diagonally to form the trusses (and side walls) of the bridge are sheathed with unpainted flush boards hung vertically. Similar siding painted white protects the ends of the trusses immediately inside the portals. The siding stops short of the eaves to leave strip openings along the tops of the walls.
The gable ends are sheathed with flush boards hung vertically and painted white. The portal openings have diagonal upper corners. The shallow-pitch gable roof is covered with corrugated metal sheeting painted red.
East portal (1974)
