Gold Brook Covered Bridge, Stowe Vermont
- Categories:
- Vermont
- Covered Bridges
- Howe Truss
The Gold Brook Covered Bridge is unique in Vermont, being the only bridge supported by timber Howe trusses which carries a public highway in the state. (One other bridge of the same truss type still stands in Vermont near East Shoreham, but it was built for railroad use.) The Howe truss, with its iron suspension rods and angle blocks, represents the transition from wood to iron for structural material in bridge construction.
John W. Smith built the Gold Brook Bridge in about 1844, which ranks it among the earliest applications of the Howe truss. (The first bridge of the type was constructed in Massachusetts in 1838) The Gold Brook Bridge is the only covered bridge remaining in the town of Stowe. In 1969 the residents of the town adopted a resolution which directed the selectmen to provide "perpetual maintenance" of the bridge.
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 Gold Brook Covered Bridge consists of a single-span supported by two flanking timber Howe trusses. Each truss incorporates iron suspension rods which connect the top and bottom chords between the diagonal timber braces and counter braces; there are two suspension rods between adjoining sets of timber braces.
The original timber deck beams have been replaced with railroad rails laid both perpendicular and parallel to the bottom chords to support the bridge floor.
The Gold Brook Bridge is 48.5 feet long at floor level and 17 feet wide; it has a 13.5-foot roadway. The wood floor consists of planks laid flat and perpendicular to the trusses. The structure rests on abutments built of irregular stone slabs laid dry.
On the exterior, the timbers bolted together to form the trusses (and side walls) of the bridge are sheathed with unpainted flush boards hung vertically. Similar siding 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 also sheathed with unpainted flush boards hung vertically. The portal openings have diagonal upper corners that cover the first interior struts. The top chords project 2.5 feet beyond the gable ends to support the wide overhangs of the roof; the ends of the chords are enclosed with unpainted flush vertical boards that taper downward to meet the side walls. The medium-pitch gable roof is covered with corrugated metal sheeting.
South portal and east elevation (1974)
