Back in 2019 Shae and I visited Vermont for our second and third times. During that third stay we visited 10 different covered bridges in one day. Covered bridges aren’t really a thing in the UK, so when my parents came to visit we thought it’d be fun to take them to as many of them as we could.
It turns out that during that week we managed to visit 10 covered bridges again. A couple of those were ones Shae and I had visited before, but most of them were new to us. Our last covered bridges post seemed to be popular with readers, so I thought you might be interested in seeing these ones too.
Map Of These Covered Bridges
In case you’re interested in visiting any of these on your own trip to Vermont, here’s where they’re all located. They’re in numerical order based on the order we visited them in, but that might not be the most efficient way of seeing them all; we just stopped by each one when we were in the area for other attractions.
1) Waitsfield Covered Bridge
The day after we arrived in Vermont we took a trip up to Waterbury to do some spirits, cheese and chocolate tasting. Along the way we stopped off in the cute town of Waitsfield as they have a covered bridge there.
Built in 1833, Waitsfield Covered Bridge is the second old bridge in Vermont and is the oldest one still in use. This bridge is also known as the Great Eddy Bridge or Big Eddy Bridge due to it being built over Big Eddy, a small whirlpool beneath.
As you can see in the photo above, the weather wasn’t great when we visited this bridge. Thankfully this bridge has a feature you don’t find on many covered bridges in Vermont – it has a pedestrian walkway on one side. This wasn’t there when it was originally constructed; in fact, it wasn’t until more than 100 years later – in 1940 – that the walkway was added.
2) Red Covered Bridge
The following day we took my parents to Trapp Family Lodge. After that we took a quick diversion up near Morristown to stop at Red Covered Bridge which was constructed in 1896.
3) Gold Brook Covered Bridge
After that we drove south just past Stowe to visit Gold Brook Covered Bridge.
Gold Brook Covered Bridge is also known as Emily’s Bridge. That’s not in relation to who built it or who it was built for, but because there’s said to be a ghost called Emily who haunts the bridge.
4) Coburn Covered Bridge
Visiting covered bridges became an almost daily activity while we were in Vermont as there seemed to be at least one or two nearby wherever we went. That was no exception the following day when we stopped at Coburn Covered Bridge which is about 15 minutes east of downtown Montpelier.
This was a particularly fascinating bridge thanks to information added to the bridge by local residents. While walking through there was a small note on one of its walls noting the high water mark from the floods in July 2023. In the photo below you can see that water line all along the wall where the wood is darker below.
Seeing that note on the wall is a little abstract though. What brought home quite how bad the flooding was were the other photos attached to the inside of the bridge wall showing how devastating the flooding was. Thankfully the bridge withstood the flooding.
The photo above is particularly crazy when considering how little water there usually is in the river beneath.
5) Pulp Mill Covered Bridge
Another interesting bridge was Pulp Mill Covered Bridge just north of Middlebury. The reason I found it interesting is because it has two lanes for traffic whereas most other covered bridges are only wide enough to fit one vehicle through at a time.
Pulp Mill Covered Bridge is thought to have been constructed in 1853 before being rebuilt in 2012 which took 10 months to complete.
In addition to the two lanes for traffic, there’s an uncovered walkway along one side of the bridge to help pedestrians cross over Otter Creek too.
Along this section of Otter Creek you can see Middlebury Lower Falls. These falls have been a source of water power for more than two centuries and as a result there were many mills located here over the years. Nowadays the falls generate enough renewable electricity to power about 1,000 homes in the area.
6) Halpin Covered Bridge
A few miles northeast of Pulp Mill Covered Bridge is Halpin Covered Bridge, so we headed there afterwards.
One of the more notable parts of this bridge is the latticework inside.
7) Lincoln Covered Bridge
On our way down to Boston from Hancock, VT we managed to hit up four more covered bridges. The first of those was the Lincoln Covered Bridge in Woodstock which was originally built in 1877. Shae and I tried visiting it back in 2019, but it was closed off due to much-needed maintenance.
That’s what it looked like back in 2019, so I wanted to stop back here again in 2023 to see if it had been updated. I figured its maintenance might’ve been delayed due to COVID-related reasons or perhaps that it was damaged further during the July 2023 floods. Thankfully neither of those were the case and it looked much better this time around.
The interior of the bridge seemed uniquely designed, with a divot down the middle, arches on either side and skylights in the roof to provide natural light.
8) Middle Covered Bridge
In downtown Woodstock there’s another covered bridge crossing the Ottauquechee River called the Middle Covered Bridge.
As you can see, this bridge is another one that has a covered pedestrian walkway on one side of it.
Lincoln Covered Bridge had one wide groove running down the middle of it. Middle Covered Bridge had something similar, but with grooves on the left and right hand sides too. Or perhaps they weren’t grooves, but were the regular surface and there are two raised rails instead.
9) Taftsville Covered Bridge
Lincoln was one of the bridges we’d visited back in 2019 and the other one we’d visited before was Taftsville Covered Bridge. Taftsville is one of Vermont’s more eye-catching covered bridges due to both its vibrant color…
…and its length (it’s 189 feet long).
10) Quechee Covered Bridge
Our 10th and final covered bridge during this latest visit to Vermont was the Quechee Covered Bridge.
This bridge was another one with a covered walkway for pedestrians.
It’s worth walking through the bridge on that side as you get a great view of Mill Pond Falls.
Final Thoughts
I hope you enjoyed seeing all these covered bridges in this post as much as we did in person! We love Vermont, so we’ll no doubt return there in the future, so hopefully we’ll get to see even more of these bridges then too.
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