Slate Covered Bridge


The Slate Covered Bridge is a wooden covered bridge which carries the Westport Village Road over the Ashuelot River in Westport, a village of Swanzey, New Hampshire. The bridge was built in 2001, as a replacement for an 1862 bridge that was destroyed by arson fire in 1993. The 1862 bridge, one of New Hampshire's small number of surviving 19th-century covered bridges, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Description and history

The Slate Covered Bridge is located in southwestern Swanzey, carrying Westport Village Road over the Ashuelot River in a roughly north-south orientation. The bridge is a reproduction of the 1862 bridge. The 1862 bridge was a single span Town lattice truss, with a span of and a roadway width of. Its name derives from a family that lived nearby at the time of its construction. It rested on abutments of split granite, and was covered with a tin roof. Its sides were fully sheathed, and it had numerous repairs and parts replaced.