Skip to main content

Bath-Haverhill Covered Bridge - Woodsville, New Hampshire


The Bath-Haverhill Covered Bridge (also known as the Haverhill-Bath Covered Bridge) over the Ammonoosuc River in Woodsville, New Hampshire is one of the Granite State's oldest existing covered bridges. Built using a Town lattice truss design, the covered bridge is 256 feet long and has two spans of 105 feet and 121 feet in length, along with a pedestrian walkway on the upstream side of the bridge. It is located parallel to a modern crossing of the river located on NH 135.

In March of 1827, the voters of Bath, New Hampshire appointed a committee to hold discussions with the selectmen of the neighboring town of Haverhill, New Hampshire regarding the site of a bridge between the two towns. Then, in September of 1828, the town of Bath had set aside $300 to purchase stone and timber for a covered bridge to be built between the two towns over the Ammonoosuc River. In March 1829, Ariel Miner was given the position of superintendent, but upon his request in June of that year he was released from this position and replaced by Moses Abbott and Leonard Walker. The covered bridge was completed later in the year at a cost of $2,400 between the two towns and opened to the traffic of the day, namely pedestrians and horses or oxen carrying carts and carriages.

The Bath-Haverhill Covered Bridge has survived many mishaps over the years to become one of the oldest covered bridges in New Hampshire and the United States of America. In 1927, a large tree trunk pierced the side lattice of the bridge and during that same flood, a barn floating down the river jammed against the side of the bridge. As luck would have it, the bridge withstood the damage. But decades of wear and tear took its toll on the bridge. In 1973, the bridge was repaired at a cost of $38,710. Then, ice damaged the structure in the winter of 1980 and the bridge was repaired by the state in March of 1981 at a cost of $8,000. The covered bridge was the subject of unthinkable mischievousness, as someone unsuccessfully attempted an act of arson to burn the bridge on the night of September 11, 1983. As a result, the citizens of Bath and Haverhill mounted a fund drive to repair the bridge. The bridge was bypassed for vehicle traffic in 1999 but is open to pedestrians. Before being bypassed the bridge carried traffic for a period of 170 years, which is a lot for a little covered bridge. The bridge itself is across the street in a little cul-de-sac, and was rehabilitated in 2008, now serving just foot traffic. The bridge was bypassed for vehicle traffic in 1999 but is open to pedestrians. The Bath-Haverhill Covered Bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as well, owing to its historic nature. I've managed to visited the Bath-Haverhill Covered Bridge on a few occasions over the years, enjoying the nearby scenery and the quiet, still nature of this wonderful treasure.


Looking into the portal of the covered bridge. It is no longer open to vehicles, but it is perfect to walk around and explore.


There is a dam just upstream of the covered bridge on the Ammonoosuc River.




Woodsville can be seen behind the covered bridge as well.

 

I also happened to visit the bridge in 2005, which was before the covered bridge was rehabilitated to its current state.





How to Get There:



Sources and Links:
The History of Bath - Covered Bridges
New Hampshire Bridges - Bath-Haverhill Bridge
NHTourGuide.com - Haverhill-Bath Covered Bridge NH
Bridgehunter.com - Bath/Haverhill Covered Bridge 29-05-04
Wanderlust Family Adventure - Haverhill – Bath Covered Bridge (Woodsville, New Hampshire)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chowchilla Mountain Road to Yosemite National Park

Chowchilla Mountain Road of Mariposa County is one of the oldest roadways servicing Yosemite National Park.  As presently configured this fourteen-mile highway begins at California State Route 49 near Elliot Corner and terminates at the Wawona Road in Yosemite National Park.  Chowchilla Mountain Road was constructed as a franchise toll road over Battalion Pass circa 1869-1870.  The highway was built at behest of Galen Clark to connect the town of Mariposa to his property near the South Fork Merced River at what is now Wawona.   In late 1874 the highway along with Clark’s Station would be purchased by the Washburn Brothers.  The Washburn Brothers would continue to toll Chowchilla Mountain Road as part of their Yosemite Stage Route lines.  The highway would ultimately become a Mariposa County public highway in 1917.  Mariposa would later be more directly linked with Yosemite Valley in 1926 following the completion of the Yosemite All-Year Highwa...

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l...

Angus L. Macdonald Bridge

At 1.3 kilometers (or about 0.84 miles) in length, the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge is one of two bridges crossing over the Halifax Harbour between Halifax, Nova Scotia and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, with the other bridge being the A. Murray Mackay Bridge . Opened in 1955 and named after former Nova Scotia Premier and Canadian Minister of Defense for Naval Services Angus L. Macdonald, the Macdonald Bridge was the first bridge that crossed Halifax Harbour that was opened to traffic. The Macdonald Bridge was also the subject of the Big Lift, which was only the second time in history that the span of a suspension bridge were replaced while the bridge was open to traffic. Planning began in 2010 for the Big Lift, while construction took place between 2015 and 2017. Similar work occurred on the Lion's Gate Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia before the project took place on the Macdonald Bridge. At this time, much of the bridge infrastructure is new, leaving only the towers, main cables and...