The Bennett Bridge is a historic
covered bridge
A covered bridge is a timber-truss bridge with a roof, decking, and siding, which in most covered bridges create an almost complete enclosure. The purpose of the covering is to protect the wooden structural members from the weather. Uncovered woo ...
in rural northern
Oxford County, Maine
Oxford County is a county in the state of Maine, United States. As of the 2020 Census, the county had a population of 57,777. Its county seat is the town of Paris. The county was formed on March 4, 1805, by the Massachusetts General Court in th ...
. The bridge, now closed to traffic, formerly carried Littlehale Road over the
Magalloway River
The Magalloway River is a river in northwestern Maine and northern New Hampshire in the United States. It is a tributary of the Androscoggin River, which flows to the Kennebec River at Merrymeeting Bay in Maine, near the Atlantic Ocean. The total ...
, about south of the village Wilsons Mills in
Lincoln Plantation. Built in 1901, it is one of Maine's few older covered bridges.
[National Register nomination for Bennett Bridge; available by request from the National Park Service] The bridge was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1970.
Description
The bridge is a
Paddleford truss bridge, a type of truss in which diagonal cross members are connected to
King post
A king post (or king-post or kingpost) is a central vertical post used in architectural or bridge designs, working in tension to support a beam below from a truss apex above (whereas a crown post, though visually similar, supports items above fro ...
s, fastened by metal bolts. It is in length, resting on granite abutments. Its total width is 16'8", with an interior roadway width of 14'8". Its total height is (from roadbed to top of gable), with a portal clearance of . Its sides are clad in vertical boarding roughly 2/3 of the way to the roof; the ends are also clad in vertical boarding above and around the portals. The bridge is further stabilized by wire cables at each corner, which are anchored to concrete settings about from the bridge.
[
Bennett Bridge was built in 1901, to provide access from a handful of small farms to ]Maine State Route 16
State Route 16 (SR 16) is a numbered state highway in Maine, United States. SR 16 runs from the New Hampshire state line (signed as NH-16) at Wentworth Location (near Lake Aziscohos) in the west to Orono at the eastern terminus. Stat ...
, the major road through Lincoln Plantation. It spans the Magalloway River at a point where it is swiftly flowing, passing through a fairly narrow valley in the hilly region. The bridge saw heavy use from logging trucks that also worked in the area,[ and was closed to traffic in 1985.]
See also
*
*
* List of Maine covered bridges
References
External links
{{National Register of Historic Places
Covered bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine
Bridges completed in 1901
Bridges in Oxford County, Maine
National Register of Historic Places in Oxford County, Maine
Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine
Wooden bridges in Maine
King post truss bridges in the United States
1901 establishments in Maine