Skip to main content

Mill Brook Covered Bridge - New York

Image
By

 


The Mill Brook Covered Bridge (also known as the Grants Mills Covered Bridge) of a handful of historic covered bridges that remain in the Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York in modern times. The covered bridge crosses the Mill Brook and is located on Mill Brook Road in the town of Hardenburgh in Ulster County, less than a ½ mile from the border with Delaware County. The single lane bridge is currently closed to vehicular traffic, but pedestrians are welcome to cross the bridge. The Mill Brook Covered Bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The bridge was built by Edgar Marks, Orrin Marks and Wesley Alton in 1902 at a total cost of $1,027, using a Town lattice truss design for this 66 foot long covered bridge which is quite similar in dimensions and design to other covered bridges found in the Catskills. The bridge took only a few months to build, as local officials were accepting bids to build a covered bridge over Mill Brook in the summer of 1902, and the bridge was finished that same November.

Like many covered bridges, the Mill Brook Covered Bridge did not respond well over the years to the heavier traffic, in terms of weight. In May of 1964, the bridge was evaluated for its load strength and was initially proven to be strong enough to accommodate the load of a school bus. But by September of that year, an adjacent road bridge was built and the covered bridge was then made inaccessible to all but pedestrians. In the coming years, the Town of Hardenburgh was interested in preserving the bridge and passing ownership of the bridge on to private interests who intended to rehabilitate the bridge for historical purposes.

The Mill Brook Covered Bridge was rehabilitated in 1991 by Bob Vredenburgh, who was a great-grandson of Edgar Marks, one of the original builders of the bridge. To assist in the funding of the rehabilitation of this bridge, trunnels were sold to individuals with the stipulation that their names would be imprinted on them. You can look for the names on trunnels when visiting the bridge. I did not know this when I visited the covered bridge at first, but still enjoyed my visit nonetheless.










How to Get There:



Sources and Links:
I Love New York - Mill Brook Covered Bridge
Bridgehunter.com - Grant Mills Covered Bridge 32-56-06
Ontfin.com - Millbrook Covered Bridge, New York
New York State Covered Bridge Society - Grants Mill / Mill Brook Covered Bridge Ulster County NY-56-06
Matthew Jarnich Photography - Catskills, Then and Now: Millbrook Covered Bridge
Matthew Jarnich Photography - Covered Bridges of the Catskills: Ulster County


Update Log:
Crossposted to Unlocking New York: https://unlockingnewyork.blogspot.com/2021/02/mill-brook-covered-bridge.html

Labels:
Location: 8 Fred Davis Rd, Margaretville, NY 12455, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Morgan Territory Road

By
Morgan Territory Road is an approximately 14.7-mile-long roadway mostly located in the Diablo Range of Contra Costa County, California.  The roadway is named after settler Jerimah Morgan who established a ranch in the Diablo Range in 1857.  Morgan Territory Road was one of several facilities constructed during the Gold Rush era to serve the ranch holdings.   The East Bay Regional Park District would acquire 930 acres of Morgan Territory in 1975 in an effort to establish a preserve east of Mount Diablo. The preserve has since been expanded to 5,324 acres. The preserve functionally stunts the development along roadway allowing it to remain surprisingly primitive in a major urban area. Part 1; the history of Morgan Territory Road During the period of early period of American Statehood much of the Diablo Range of Contra Costa County was sparsely developed.   Jerimah Morgan acquired 2,000 acres of land east of Mount Diablo in 1856 and established a ranch in 1857. Morgan Territory Road is
2 comments
Read more

The 1915 Fine Gold Creek Bridge (Madera County)

By
The 1915 Fine Gold Creek Bridge is an early era arch concrete structure found alongside modern Madera County Road 200.  The structure was modeled as a smaller scale of the 1905 Pollasky Bridge (still in ruins at the San Joaquin River) and was one of many early twentieth century improvements to what was then known as the Fresno-Fresno Flats Road.  The 1915-era bridge was replaced with a modernized concrete span during 1947 but was never demolished.  The original concrete structure can be still found sitting in the brush north of the 2023 Fine Gold Creek Bridge.     Part 1; the history of the 1915 Fine Gold Creek Bridge The 1915 Fine Gold Creek Bridge lies near the site of the former mining community of Fine Gold.   Mining claims were staked at Fine Gold during the Mariposa War during 1850. The community was never very large but became a stopping point on the stage road between the original Fresno County seat at Millerton and Fresno Flats (now Oakhurst). The stage road eventually bypas
Post a Comment
Read more

Old Sonoma Road

By
  Old Sonoma Road is an approximately five-mile highway located in the Mayacamas Mountains of western Napa County.  The roadway is part of the original stage road which connected Napa Valley west to Mission San Francisco Solano as part of El Camino Real.  Much of Old Sonoma Road was bypassed by the start of the twentieth century by way of Sonoma Highway.  A portion of Old Sonoma Road over the 1896 Carneros Creek Bridge (pictured as the blog cover) was adopted as part of Legislative Route Number 8 upon voter approval of the 1909 First State Highway Bond Act.  The 1896 Carneros Creek Bridge served as a segment of California State Route 37 and California State Route 12 from 1934 through 1954.  Part 1; the history of Old Sonoma Road Old Sonoma Road has origins tied to the formation of Mission San Francisco Solano and the Spanish iteration of El Camino Real.  Mission San Francisco Solano was founded as the last and most northern Spanish Mission of Alta California on July 4, 1823.  The new M
Post a Comment
Read more