Brown Covered Bridge, North Clarendon Vermont
- Categories:
- Vermont
- Covered Bridges
- Town Lattice Truss
Built in 1880 by Nicholas M. Powers, the Brown Covered Bridge is the last work of Vermont's most famous covered bridge builder. The Brown Bridge is the only covered wood bridge to survive in the town of Shrewsbury, and one of three bridges in Vermont whose construction Powers is known to have assisted or directed. Conventional in structure and form, the Brown Bridge represents the ordinary work of a prolific master bridge builder.
The covered bridges of Vermont are among its most cherished and symbolic historic resources. About one hundred bridges still stand in the state, the country's greatest concentration by area of covered bridges.
Bridge Description
The Brown Covered Bridge consists of a single span supported by two flanking timber Town lattice trusses. Iron tie-rods extend between the bottom chords to provide reinforcement. The bridge rests on abutments built of irregular rocks laid dry, with the low north abutment placed on a giant boulder that reaches nearly to the underside of the bridge. The bridge is 112.5 feet long and 18 feet wide, with a 15-foot roadway.
On the exterior, the large planks pegged together diagonally to form the trusses (and side walls) of the bridge are sheathed with flush boards hung vertically. Similar siding protects the ends of the trusses immediately inside the portals. The gable ends are also sheathed with flush vertical boards. There are no windows in the side walls, though the siding stops short of the eaves to leave a strip opening along the top of each side of the bridge. The gable roof is covered with slate shingles.
Looking southeast (1973)
