Hutchins Covered Bridge, Montgomery Center Vermont

Date added: June 06, 2024

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The Hutchins 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; they completed the Hutchins Bridge in 1883. The Jewetts used Town lattice trusses in all of the bridges, which also share 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 Hutchins Covered Bridge consists of a single span supported by two flanking timber Town lattice trusses. The structure has not been reinforced by any of the various devices added to many other covered bridges in Vermont. The bridge rests on abutments built of irregular stone blocks laid dry which stand on prominent outcrops of bedrock. The east abutment is almost completely formed by an overhanging outcrop, on top of which a few stone blocks have been laid to receive the ends of the trusses.

The Hutchins Bridge is 77 feet long overall and 19.5 feet wide; it has a 16-foot roadway. The wood floor consists of planks laid flat both longitudinally and transversely to the trusses, overlaid with two longitudinal strips of planks for driving surfaces.

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 red protects the ends of the trusses immediately inside the portals. The siding stops short of the eaves to leave a strip opening along the top of each wall. A band of unpainted flush boards hung horizontally covers the siding along the bottom of each wall.

The gable ends are sheathed with flush boards hung vertically and painted red. The portal openings have diagonal upper corners. The shallow-pitch gable roof is covered with standing seam metal sheeting painted red.