Vermont's Covered Bridges, Vermont, Tours, History, Trusses

Friday,July 7, 2000
Hey everyone,
Got this today from the Bennington Town Manager. Pass it along to whom ever you think might be interested.
The Grand Reopening of the Paper Mill Bridge will be on July 13 at 4:30pm.the Gov as well as other dignitaries will be present.There will be a horse and carriage to carry people across the bridge.We anticipate a very positive celebration and would welcome your attendance.

According to Mark Mackintosh, "The State has set a final inspection/acceptance date of Wed. 7/5/00. The town is going to do paving and the State should have the temporary bridge removed in anticipation of the Official Grand Opening with the Governor present on 7/13/00. There may be a few touch up items next week even after our final inspection meeting."

June 27, 2000
        Joe, Marikka and I went over to see Paper Mill Bridge last Saturday. I would say that the bridge will be done by weeks end. There doesn't look like there is much left to do except maybe installing the vertical side boards on the west end and painting them & the portals.
        I haven't heard anything from the chamber of commerce in Bennington as of today about anything being planned for the opening.. Maybe they won't do anything like when they opened the Henry Bridge.
        Talk to you later, David

Paper Mill Bridge Rehabilitation: Photo by
David Guay, 6/26/00

This is the east portal all sided and ready to paint.

This shows the roof done, and the west end vertical boards that still need to be installed.

This shows the east end with the vertical side boards installed and roof finished

This shows the upriver side with the beams installed on the floorboards to ensure that cars stay in the middle.

This is the down river side showing the beam on the floorboards It must be at least 8" X 8" or larger.

This is looking west to east with the upriver side showing and the daisies blooming.

June 15, 2000
Joe & Dick & Jeanette,
        The installation of the sheet metal panel roofing started this morning. They had just brought up the first piece when I got there. The roofing material is the same as was used at the Coventry CB. All the seams will be crimped onto the one next to it, and there is no nails used to install it. That way no water is supposed to be able to get in.
        The builders have added small braces that are bolted to the bottom half of the upper knee braces. This is supposed to help in keeping the town lattice trusses from moving. You know sometimes you can see the truss in later years it looks like it wavers in and out, and isn't straight anymore. This is supposed to prevent that. The builder said that it wouldn't have been that much trouble to use wooden pegs to do this instead of nuts & bolts. He also said that it would have looked a lot better too.
        They were installing the vertical boards inside of the portal on the west end. They are trying to use as much of the old boards as possible.
        The horizontal siding is done on both the down river & upriver sides now. A worker was adding a last coat of paint to it this morning. It really looks nice. Was also informed that the bailey bridge next to the covered bridge should be removed sometime this summer.
        Visited the Bennington Chamber of Commerce office in the Veterans Park, and was informed that the person there had NO knowledge of anything Official being planned for the opening of the Paper Mill bridge. I gave her a card to E-mail me if anything is planned.. I will pass anything along as soon as I receive it. Later, David

Paper Mill Bridge Rehabilitation: Photo by
David Guay, 6/15/00

This shows the roofing nailing boards completed and the roofers installing the first piece of roofing on the east down river side.

This shows the machine that makes the roofing sections. A big roll of metal is fed through the machine shaping the edges so that they will fit together, and cutting it to the proper length.

This shows the workers installing the vertical boards inside the west end portal.

This shows a worker installing the small braces onto the bottom of the upper knee braces. Notice that all the small braces are held in place with four nuts & bolts.

June 3, 2000
Joe: Went to the Paper Mill on Sat. 6/3, and found that all the top knee braces are completed, and the roofing nailing boards are all installed. They haven't started the siding on the upriver side yet.
The storm that went through the night before did no damage to the bridge, but a big birch tree was blown over down river from the bridge, and it now blocks the little trail that is used to get shots of the bridge and falls. Other than that, all looks okay. Later, David

Paper Mill Bridge Rehabilitation: Photo by
David Guay, 6/3/00

This shows the roofing nailing boards completed.

This is a nice shot with all the shadows from the truss & roofing nailers.

This shows the siding, and all the roofing nailers on the down river side.

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Joe Nelson, P.O Box 267, Jericho, VT 05465-0267, jcnelson@together.net

The Paper Mill Covered Bridge Reconstruction in Photos