Exploring New Hampshire's Historic Covered Bridges
New Hampshire has worked to preserve more than 50 covered bridges within its borders. At one time during the 1800s, there were more than 10,000 covered wooden bridges in the United States. During our stay, we visited 5 - Swiftwater, Haverhill-Bath, Bath, Taftsville, and Cornish-Windsor. Out of the 5, four of them were still being used by vehicle traffic today!
Our truck is much to heavy to traverse most of these bridges, but we did travel on the Cornish-Windsor bridge , which is the longest wooden covered bridge in the United States and the longest two-span covered bridge in the world! The one that is no longer in use is the Haverhill-Bath bridge, but it holds the record for oldest covered bridge still in use in New Hampshire and the first and only bridge at this site. It is currently a pedestrian only bridge.
The construction of the bridges is incredible. In the 5 bridges, there were 3 different truss types used - Burr Arch (most common amongst the remaining covered bridges), Town Lattice, and Paddleford (less than 20 bridges remaining in the world that use the Paddleford truss system!). Entering into any of the bridges, you are struck by what engineering marvels these bridges actually are.
