The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-06-20
HIGHWAY BRIDGE
NEARING ITS END
Timbers Supporting Struc-
ture Over West River
Decaying
SOME ARE BROKEN
BY HEAVY TRAFFIC
Was Fine Piece of Workmanship in It's
Day, but Has Become Badly Warped
and Strained-Temporary Repairs Be
ing Made.


After having done excellent service 81
years the highway covered bridge across
West river, near the junction with the
Connecticut river, has been found to be |
nearly at an end OF its existence, and /
while it is undergoing temporary repairs
which viii take it through this year and
bered, III the opinion of the selectmen.
Its career has been somewhat checkered |
in recent years, largely because it has
been called upon to bear greater bur
den than it ever was intended to bear
4 considerable sum of money will be in
volved in replacing the old bridge with
an IRON one, but the voters might as well
be making up their minds that the ex-
pense has got to come before long.
Within a few days it has been discov-
cred that some of the supporting timbers
have broken The bneaks are revealed
when heavy loads cross the structure
Some planks have been torn up, showing
also that some of the timbers have rotted
These are to be replaced with heavy piec-
es of chestnut, and while these will do
what is expected of them they will not in
sure safety to a degree that ought to be
insured
The bridge was erected III 1862. and it
was a piece of first class workmanship
Even as late as 1907 an expert inspection
showed that all the timbers were sound
The builders, however, could not look in
to the future and anticipate big automo-
| bile trucks loaded with logs. or steam
rollers and other Goliaths of modern high
way traffic With the development OF
motor vehicles for commercial purposes
loads exceeding nine tons in weight have
passed over this bridge, and within a
short time two heavily loaded motor
trucks have been known to be on the
bridge at once.
For a good number of years the bridge
has been far out of true, and in 1907 it
| had become so warped that the selectmen
had it inspected by John w. Storrs ot
Concord, \. H., Boston & Maine rail
road engineer In his report Mr. Storrs
said in part:
The trusses and arches are very much
out of plumb easterly The whole bridge
Is ont Of line, with a long general sweeT
toward the east, but there are short kinks
7 IN the opposite direction These kink.
: are particularly noticeable in the chords
At the JOINTS in the chords the timbcr
; are pulled apart
Mr.. Storrs said the strain on the bot
tom chords was about four times as grea
rs i should be, and was dangerously nea
the limit various points showing over
: STRAIN. He did not consider the brdg
safe and said there was no question tha
something ought to be done as soon a
practicable. The timbers were sound
however.
/ In March, 1909, it being Incumbent IN
on the Connecticut River Power Co. t
put the abutments of the bridge in
:, safe condition, because of the construC
l. ton Of the dam at Vernon, the compan
a raised the bridge four feet, and the Sc
; lectmen arranged with the company fo
a putting the bridge in repair for 5000. Th
n company reconstructed the wing wall
/ and abutments and reinforced them wit
g concrete and repaired the bridge. Afte
II being closed three weeks the bridge wa
a opened for traffic May Is, 1909, and FL
n win II. Carey of Troy, n. Y. consultin
engineer for ]. G. White & Co. of Bostoi
which firm financed the construction ,
the Vernon dam, said the bridge wouI
be good for 35 years.
But there was a thrust of rs tons :
the ends of the big wooden arches SUI
porting the bridge, and in January. l9l
, the selectmen noticed that the ends
n. the east arch We're crowding away II
n top of one of the abutments against whic
~ it rested, allowing the arch to settle
Ia inches in the center of the bridge NJ
" Storrs was called again and traffic WI
10 closed from April to April 10 while Il
~ Connecticut River Power Co. was rel
= forcing the footings against which Il
arch was crowding The Power Co. /
o. ported that its work on the bridge al
ho foundation had cost the company ov
~ S., ,000
,r- With the exception Of the usual repai
there was no further trouble of nome
until year ago last winter, when Il
rafters spread and let the slant roof f;
down fiat on top of the bridge.
1t has been suggested by some tn
in when new bridge is erected the hig
way ought to be raised so as to 90 ov
the West River railroad track inste;
oil of under it.