Skip to main content

Perrine's Covered Bridge



If you are traveling northbound along the New York State Thruway, you may notice a roof of a covered bridge as you cross the Wallkill River near Rifton (not far from Rosendale), just about halfway between the New Paltz and Kingston exits. Your eyes are not deceiving you, as that is the historic Perrine's Covered Bridge that you are passing. While you would have to do some backtracking along NY Route 32 or NY Route 213 if you decide to turn around in Kingston to see the bridge, there is plenty of history and scenic beauty if you decide to do so.

Perrine’s Covered Bridge is one of five covered bridges that is still standing in Ulster County. Owned and maintained by Ulster County, Perrine’s Covered Bridge was named after James Perrine, who was a son of French immigrant James Perrin and Huguenot descendant Catherine Freer. Perrine had operated a hotel and tavern starting in the 1820s on the south side of the Wallkill River at the site that subsequently was chosen for the covered bridge. Plus, nearby areas to the covered bridge site were part of the Perrine farm.

Ulster County Board of Supervisors’ records show that a bridge was authorized “near the house of James Perrine” in 1822 and again in 1834, However, the current Perrine's Bridge was built by Rosecrans Wood in 1844, who lived a few miles south of the bridge on a farm which is now occupied by Oscar Tschirky, the famous "Oscar of the Waldorf Hotel". This 154 foot long single span bridge incorporates the Burr arch design patented in 1817 by Theodore Burr. It is one of three authentic Burr arch truss bridges remaining in New York State (the other two being the Hyde Hall Covered Bridge and Salisbury Center Covered Bridges) and the longest standing Burr arch covered bridge in the state. It is also the second oldest bridge in New York (the first also happens to be Hyde Hall). The total cost to build the Perrine Covered Bridge in 1844 was approximately $2,200.

The construction of three covered bridges—Perrine’s, Phillies, and one in the village of New Paltz—across the Wallkill River within fifteen miles in the same decade all helped connect the area to communities beyond when a network of new roads was also being laid out.

At the time of the construction of Perrine’s Bridge, there were nearly twenty mills and factories in the hamlet of Dashville adjacent to two waterfalls along the Wallkill River that were only about 3/4 mile from Perrine’s Bridge. The Dashville industrial complex supported more than a thousand workers who, beginning in the early 1800s, spun cotton into yarn then subsequently cloth itself before diversifying to produce everything from wool blankets and carpets to cotton products, flour, knives and lumber. The construction of Perrine’s Bridge, along with two other covered bridges in the area, the Phillies Covered Bridge and a covered bridge within the Village of New Paltz, made it easier for workers to work at the Dashville mills.

While horse drawn carriages once crossed Perrine's Covered Bridge, today it is a scenic bridge open only to pedestrian traffic, even with motor vehicles whizzing on by just feet away on the Thruway. The bridge is now a New York State historic site and has been restored a few times, most recently in 1997 at a cost of $195,000. There is a pulloff along NY 213 for any curious passerbys to see the covered bridge.











How to Get There:


Sources and Links:
Perrine's Bridge - Empire Explorer
Perrine's Covered Bridge - Path Through History / I Love NY
Perrine's Covered Bridge County Park - NY-NJ-CT Botany Online
Perrine's Covered Bridge - Bridgehunter.com

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...