Village Covered Bridge, Waterville Vermont

Date added: July 11, 2024

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The Village Covered Bridge together with two other covered wood bridges in the town of Waterville and two bridges of the same type in the adjoining town of Belvidere cross the North Branch of the Lamoille River within a distance of about five miles, comprising one of the most concentrated groups of covered bridge in Vermont. The five bridges are important and distinctive elements of the historic environment of the Lamoille River valley.

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 Village Covered Bridge consists of a single span supported originally by two flanking timber queenpost trusses. The trusses incorporate iron suspension rods that extend from the upper apexes of the diagonal braces to the bottom chords. In 1968 the timber deck structure was replaced with four longitudinal steel beams. The timber trusses now carry only the superstructure of the bridge. The structure rests on abutments built of irregular stone slabs laid dry and capped with concrete.

The Village Bridge is 61 feet long overall and 15 feet wide; it has a 12.5-foot roadway. The wood floor, which consists of planks placed on edge and perpendicular to the trusses, has been laid directly on the steel deck beams. The floor is 47 feet long, beginning seven feet inside each portal; the approaches are gravel.

On the exterior, the timbers pegged and bolted together to form the trusses (and side walls) of the bridge are sheathed with unpainted boards-and-battens hung vertically. The siding stops short of the eaves to leave strip openings along the tops of the walls. There is a large rectangular window near the west end of each wall to provide visibility for the sharp curves in the road intersection at that end of the bridge.

The east gable end is also sheathed with unpainted boards-and-battens hung vertically; the west gable end is sheathed with unpainted flush boards hung vertically. The boards curve outward beyond the line of the side walls to form half-arches under the eaves. The portal openings are framed with segmental arches.

The medium-pitch gable roof, which is flush with the gable ends, is covered with standing seam metal sheeting.