I am SUPER STOKED to offer you today’s video: https://youtu.be/eXSB7-2gA1Y! I traveled to East Shoreham, Vermont to see for myself the East Shoreham Covered Railroad Bridge. It is 1 of only 2 remaining covered railroad bridges in the state of Vermont and the LAST REMAINING HOWE TRUSS COVERED RAILROAD BRIDGE IN VERMONT! This Howe Truss bridge is one of ONLY EIGHT remaining ones across all of the United States, too!! Intrigued?
The drive took over an hour. Was it worth it? You’ll hear MY answer in the video. Watch the video and decide for yourself, if you’d also like to make the pilgrimage. If so, you’ll walk along the former railbed to get there. Wow…
“The East Shoreham Bridge is located in a rural area of southeastern Shoreham, on the Lemon Fair River. It is located about 0.2 miles (0.32 km) west of the Shoreham-Depot Road, and is accessible on foot via the former railroad right-of-way, now (along with the bridge) a state-owned property. It is a single-span Howe truss structure, 109 feet (33 m) in length, and set on dry-laid stone abutments faced in concrete. The trusses consist of wooden diagonals and iron rod verticals. The bridge has a total width of 20 feet (6.1 m) and an internal width of 13.5 feet (4.1 m). The railroad tracks, which have been removed, were original laid directly on the deck timbers. The bridge’s exterior consists of vertical board siding covered by a metal roof.[2]
The bridge was built in 1897 by the Rutland Railroad Company for service on its Addison Branch line. Because of the line’s relatively light traffic, it was not judged necessary to go to the expense of building an iron bridge, resulting in the construction of one of the state’s few surviving 19th-century covered railroad bridges. It remained in service until 1951, when the line was abandoned. The state acquired the bridge and surrounding land in 1972.[2]”-https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Shoreham_Covered_Railroad_Bridge
The Lemon Fair River likely gets its name from an anglicized version of these three French words: “les monts verts”.
A Howe Truss bridge uses a combination of vertical iron rods and wooden diagonal beams (trusses). Invented in 1840 by William Howe, a Massachusetts construction contractor, the Howe Truss design was used into the late 1800s.
