Maple Street Covered Bridge

The Maple Street Covered Bridge, also called the Lower Covered Bridge and the Fairfax Covered Bridge,[2] is a covered bridge that carries Maple Street across Mill Brook off State Route 104 in Fairfax, Vermont. Built in 1865, it is the town's only historic covered bridge, and is a rare two-lane covered bridge in the state. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.[1]

Maple Street Covered Bridge
Bridge in U.S. state of Vermont
Coordinates44°39′49″N 73°00′37″W
CarriesMaple Street
CrossesMill Brook
LocaleFairfax, Vermont
Maintained byTown of Fairfax
ID numberVT-06-02
Characteristics
DesignCovered, Town lattice
MaterialWood
Total length56.8 ft (17.31 m)
Width17.3 ft (5.27 m)
No. of spans1
Load limit4 tons
Clearance above9.5 ft (2.90 m)
History
Constructed byKingsbury and Stone
Construction end1865 (1865)
Coordinates44.66359°N 73.0104°W / 44.66359; -73.0104
Area1 acre (0.4 ha)
NRHP reference No.74000215[1]
Added to NRHPNovember 5, 1974

Description and history

The Maple Street Covered Bridge is located on the south side of Fairfax village, carrying Maple Street across Mill Brook, a tributary of the nearby Lamoille River, between the village center and Bellows Free Academy. The bridge is a single-span structure of Town lattice design, set on abutments of stone and concrete. It is 56.5 feet (17.2 m) long and 20.5 feet (6.2 m) wide, with a roadway width of 17.5 feet (5.3 m). Iron tie rods join the tops of the flanking trusses to provide lateral stability, and the bridge deck is made of wooden planking. The exterior is clad in vertical board siding, which ends short of the eaves on the sides. The siding extends a short way on the interior of each portal.[3]

The bridge was built in 1865 by Kingsbury and Stone. It is the town's only surviving 19th-century covered bridge, and is rare in the state as an example of a two-lane bridge, built to accommodate significant village traffic.[3] A major renovation was conducted in 1990-1991 by Jan Lewandoski. Debate is conducted to this day as to whether the bridge is now "backwards". When it was washed off its foundations by the Flood of 1927 it is unknown whether the bridge was put back on in the same direction as it was originally. Some say the eastern portal now faces west, and vice versa.[4]

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Lower Covered Bridge
  3. Hugh Henry (1974). "NRHP nomination for Fairfax Covered Bridge". National Park Service. Retrieved 2016-10-26. with photos from 1974
  4. Barna, Ed. Covered Bridges of Vermont. The Countryman Press, 1996. ISBN 0-88150-373-8
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