Skip to main content

East Shoreham Covered Railroad Bridge - Vermont

Image
By

 


Also known as the Richville Covered Bridge, the East Shoreham Covered Railroad Bridge in Shoreham, Vermont is one of just eight covered railroad bridges still in existence in the United States. The 108 foot long covered bridge was built in 1897 utilizing a Howe truss design and construction, crossing the Richville Pond on the Lemon Fair River and was part the former Addison Branch of the Rutland Railroad. The bridge features a clear span of 94 feet, 6 inches with a 21 foot high truss from the top of the upper chord to the bottom of the lower chord and a width of 14 feet between the trusses.

In 1870 the Addison County Railroad was chartered to build a line connecting the Rutland Railroad at Leicester Junction, Vermont, with the Delaware & Hudson Railroad at Ticonderoga, New York, a distance stretching at 15.6 miles. The line was laid out from Leicester Junction westward through the towns of Whiting, Shoreham and Orwell and then across Lake Champlain on a floating railroad bridge to Ticonderoga. In the southeast corner of Shoreham, the line crossed the Lemon Fair River, at a community known as Richville (formerly known as Rich's Mills). A bridge was built here to cross the Lemon Fair River in the autumn of 1871.

The date of construction of the present covered railroad bridge at East Shoreham is not conclusive as documented in known records. While the Addison County Railroad was building timber Howe truss bridges on the line in 1871, most modern sources state that the East Shoreham Covered Railroad Bridge was built in 1897. The East Shoreham Covered Railroad Bridge carried trains until 1951, when the Rutland Railroad decided to abandon the line due to a lack of traffic. In 1972, the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation took possession of the covered bridge in order to preserve it, especially with few remaining examples of railroad covered bridges. Restoration of the bridge happened in the fall of 1983 at a cost of $35,014, with work being done to reinforce the abutments, constructing a new deck constructed and replacing the roof and siding. The railroad tracks have been removed and replaced with a plank walkway for pedestrian and snowmobile traffic.







How to Get There:



Sources and Links:
Vermont Covered Bridge Society - East Shoreham Railroad Covered Bridge
The Travels of Tug 44 - East Shoreham Railroad Covered Bridge
Historic Structures - Shoreham Covered Railroad Bridge, Shoreham Vermont
Bridgehunter.com - East Shoreham Covered Railroad Bridge
Brandon Area Chamber of Commerce - Covered Bridge Tour Northern Route
Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development - Historic Bridges
Labels:
Location: 18 Shoreham Depot Rd, Orwell, VT 05760, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I-40 rockslide uncovers old debates on highway

By
The Asheville Citizen-Times continues to do a great job covering all the angles of the Interstate 40 Haywood County rock slide. An article in Sunday's edition provides a strong historical perspective on how the Pigeon River routing of Interstate 40 came about. And perhaps most strikingly, in an article that ran just prior to the highway's opening in the fall of 1968, how engineers from both Tennessee and North Carolina warned "...that slides would probably be a major problem along the route for many years." On February 12, 1969, not long after the Interstate opened, the first rock slide that would close I-40 occurred. Like many other Interstates within North Carolina, Interstate 40 through the mountains has a history prior to formation of the Interstate Highway System and was also a heated political battle between local communities. The discussion for a road that would eventually become Interstate 40 dates back to the 1940's as the idea for interregional high
2 comments
Read more

Mines Road

By
Mines Road is an approximately twenty-eight-mile highway located in the rural parts of the Diablo Range east of the San Francisco Bay Area.  Mines Road begins in San Antonio Valley in Santa Clara County and terminates at Tesla Road near Livermore of Alameda County.  The highway essentially is a modern overlay of the 1840s Mexican haul trail up Arroyo Mocho known as La Vereda del Monte.  The modern corridor of Mines Road took shape in the early twentieth century following development of San Antonio Valley amid a magnesite mining boom.  Part 1; the history of Mines Road Modern Mines Road partially overlays the historic corridor used by La Vereda del Monte (Mountain Trail).  La Vereda del Monte was part of a remote overland route through the Diablo Range primarily used to drive cattle from Alta California to Sonora.  The trail was most heavily used during the latter days of Alta California during the 1840s. La Vereda del Monte originated at Point of Timber between modern day Byron and Bre
Post a Comment
Read more

Former California State Route 41 past Bates Station

By
When California State Route 41 was commissioned during August 1934 it was aligned along the then existing Fresno-Yosemite Road north of the San Joaquin River.  Within the Sierra Nevada foothills of Madera County, the original highway alignment ran past Bates Station via what is now Madera County Road 209, part of eastern Road 406 and Road 207.   Bates Station was a stage station plotted during the early 1880s at what was the intersection of the Coarsegold Road and Stockton-Los Angeles Road.   The modern alignment bypassing Bates Station to the east would be reopened to traffic during late 1939.   Part 1; the history of California State Route 41 past Bates Station Bates Station was featured as one of the many 1875-1899 Madera County era towns in the May 21, 1968, Madera Tribune .  Post Office Service at Bates Station is noted to have been established on November 23, 1883 and ran continuously until October 31, 1903.  The postal name was sourced from Bates Station owner/operator George Ba
Post a Comment
Read more