Covered Bridges - Gateways to the Past

New Hampshire has many special covered bridges, including the longest in the nation. The Cornish-Windsor Bridge spans the Connecticut River between Vermont and New Hampshire. Since New Hampshire's boundary includes the Connecticut River, this 290-foot bridge is in the State. In addition to being the longest in the USA, it is the eighth longest covered bridge in the world.

New Hampshire has set up a wonderful Web site complete with photos, facts, and historical information about our covered bridges. I have included a link to it (New Hampshire Covered Bridges) following the links that describe the photos in this article. I hope you enjoy it. I leave you with this lovely poem:

I AM THE COVERED BRIDGE
I am the covered bridge, out of reach of the city's turmoil
By night, with its thousand lights and its busy rushing throng;
Far out from these I span the narrow stream, or wide,
The quiet babbling water, or the turbulent creek
Fed by the meadow brook of my domain;
My designers and builders, craftsmen in the art of mortise and tenon,
Shaping together timbers, cut and hewn from the banks of the creek I span,
Timbers doweled together without noise of hammer and nail:
I am the covered bridge!

At dawn or noon hour, or in the sunset's glow,
I am a symbol of protection from the stream below;
My lot is not so uneventful, quite contrariwise;
The creek, its flower-brocaded banks, cool air, blue skies,
At night, fluorescent glow of fireflies like sapphires rise and fall,
The whirring of owl wings, a cricket symphone, a night bird's call;
I wait for these, and wait to help a traveler on his way
To wedding march, or funeral pall;
I am the covered bridge!

Don A. Williams, March 1959
Poem from this collection:
http://www.pronetisp.net/~ppierce/covpoe...

Photos: Top - Sawyer's Crossing
http://www.state.nh.us/nhdhr/bridges/p13...

Middle - Blair Bridge
http://www.state.nh.us/nhdhr/bridges/p77...

Bottom - Saco River Bridge
http://www.state.nh.us/nhdhr/bridges/p91...

New Hampshire Covered Bridges
http://www.state.nh.us/nhdhr/bridges/ind...

National Society to Preserve Covered Bridges
http://www.vermontbridges.com/whatis.htm

Covered Bridges in New Hampshire
http://www.visitnh.gov/coveredbridges.ht...

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