Covered bridges have served many other purposes besides transportation. Children once played in them. Villagers convened meetings inside or consulted the interior walls for notices and advertisements. Nowadays, people sometimes still dive off covered bridges into swimming holes and angle off them into their favorite fishing holes, says Gilbertson. We have trouble with the Shoreham Bridge.
People kick the board off the outside so they can stick their fishing poles through.
A sign suggesting yet another use has decorated The Codding Bridge over the North Branch of the Lamoille River in Waterville since the 1950s. That and probably worse has happened in covered bridges. Gilbertson is right. Fire and floodwater have ravaged covered bridges. They've given way under the strain of overweight loads.