Skip to main content

Travel New England - Mill and Cilley Bridges - Tunbridge, Vermont

Image
By
The Mill and Cilley bridges are two of five covered bridges that sit off of Vermont Route 110 in Tunbridge. A sixth bridge is relatively close by in the Town of Chelsea.  All six bridges cross the North Branch of the White River.  In August of 2006, I was able to check out the Mill and Cilley bridges.

Mill Bridge:


The Mill Bridge receives its name from the 19th Century Hayward and Kibby Mill that still stands near the bridge.  The original Mill Bridge was built in 1883 by Arthur C. Adams.  It was a multiple kingpost bridge and stood until an ice jam destroyed the bridge in the Winter of 1999.   The jam had shifted the bridge off of its abutments; and if jarred loose, the destroyed bridge would have threatened other covered bridges downstream.  It was decided to burn the remnants of the bridge on the river so it would not impact any other bridge.

The former Hayward and Kibby Mill still stands alongside the bridge.
The Central Vermont community rallied quickly to replace the bridge and a new structure built as closely to the original design as possible was in place and open the following year.  The Mill Bridge carries Spring Road and runs just under 72 feet in length.  It is sometimes also known as the Hayward or Noble Bridge.  The original Mill Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

Cilley Bridge:



Located less than a mile downstream from the Mill Bridge, the Cilley Covered Bridge carries Howe Lane over the North Branch of the White River.  It was also built in 1883 by Arthur C. Adams.  The bridge was in the process of being restored when visited in August of 2006.  It is a multiple kingpost truss bridge and is just under 67 feet in length.

The Cilley Bridge under rehabilitation in August 2006.
The Cilley Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

Further Reading:


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did Caltrans just kill the G26 cutout US Route shields?

By
The US Route System was formally created by the American Association of State Highway Officials during November 1926.  Through the history of the system the only state to which has elected to maintain cutout US Route shields has been California.  The G26 series cutout US Route shields have become a favorite in the road enthusiast hobby and are generally considered to be much more visually pleasing than the standard Federal Highway Administration variant.  However, the G26 shield series appears to have been killed off on January 18, 2026, when Caltrans updated their Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.  This blog will examine the history of the US Route shield specifications in California and what is happening with the 2026 changes.  The blog cover photo is facing towards the terminus of California State Route 136 and at a G26-2 specification US Route 395 shield.  In the background Mount Whitney can be seen in the Sierra Nevada range.   ...
2 comments
Read more

Ghost Town Tuesday; Nichols, FL

By
A couple years ago I spent a lot of spare time exploring phosphate mining ghost towns in the Bone Valley of Polk County, Florida.  One ghost town in particular called Nichols on Polk County Route 676 west of Mulberry caught my eye due to a relative lack of documentation on ghosttowns.com. Nichols was created in 1905 during the early phosphate mining boom in the Bone Valley region.  For the time Nichols was unusual since it had company housing in the Nichols Mine site and private residences outside the gate.  Nichols is only about two miles west of Mulberry which probably made it a somewhat reasonable commute even by the wonky standards of the early 20th Century.  Most of the Bone Valley region was relatively remote which made commuting or homesteading impractical which is why there are so many ghost towns in the area.  The company housing section of Nichols was phased out and abandoned by 1950. The Nichols town site is largely abandoned and could "possibl...
4 comments
Read more

Old Wards Ferry Road

By
Old Wards Ferry Road is an approximately 3.6-mile portion of the original alignment of Wards Ferry Road located near the city of Sonora, California.  As currently configured this older alignment begins at modern Wards Ferry Road near Curtis Creek and terminates in Sonora at Sanguinetti Road.  The Olds Wards Ferry Road corridor is largely defined by the single lane 1914-era arch concrete bridge at Curtis Creek. Wards Ferry Road is one of the oldest road corridors in Tuolumne County having been set up as a ferry crossing by Joesph Ward during 1850.  Wards Ferry Road was once the primary connecting highway between the communities of Big Oak Flat and Sonora.  Wards Ferry Road is most well-known from the largely one-lane wide alignment through Murderer's Gulch where it crosses the Tuolumne River via heavily graffitied 1971 Wards Ferry Bridge.  Pictured as the blog cover is the 1897 Wards Ferry Bridge as it was during 1951.  The 1897 Wards Ferry Bridge was built ...
Post a Comment
Read more