Pine Brook Covered Bridge, Waitsfield Vermont
- Categories:
- Vermont
- Covered Bridges
- Kingpost Truss
The Pine Brook covered bridge is one of two covered bridges to survive in the town of Waitsfield. The bridge remains structurally unaltered from its original design, lacking any of the various reinforcing devices added to many other covered bridges in Vermont.
The covered bridges of Vermont are among its most cherished and symbolic historic resources. About one hundred bridges Still stand in the state, the greatest concentration by area of covered bridges in the country.
The Pine Brook covered bridge consists of a single span supported by two flanking timber kingpost trusses. Two logs have been placed upright in the stream bed to give temporary support to the center of the trusses. The bridge rests on abutments built of irregular stone slabs laid dry.
The Pine Brook bridge is 48 feet long and 17.5 feet wide, and has a 14.5-foot roadway. The wood floor consists of planks laid flat and parallel to the trusses.
On the exterior, the heavy timbers pegged 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 exterior 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 are rectangular except for diagonal upper corners. The medium-pitch gable roof is covered withstanding seam metal sheeting.
