The Bloomfield-Nulhegan River Route 102 Bridge is a historic bridge in

Bloomfield, Vermont Bloomfield is a town in Essex County, Vermont, United States. The population was 217 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Berlin, NH–VT Micropolitan Statistical Area. History In 1830, an act from the state General Assembly changed t ...

. It carries

Vermont Route 102 Vermont Route 102 (VT 102) is a north–south state highway in Essex County, Vermont, in the United States. It follows the west bank of the Connecticut River and parallels U.S. Route 3 (US 3), which is routed along the river' ...

over the

Nulhegan River The Nulhegan River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data accessed April 7, 2016 tributary of the Connecticut River in Essex County, Vermont, Essex County, Vermont. Course The main stem of the ri ...

, near its mouth at the

Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges at Long Island ...

just south of Bloomfield Village. Built in 1937, it is a well-preserved example of a

Pratt through truss A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements (typically straight) may be stressed from tension, compression, or s ...

, exhibiting then state-of-the-art engineering. It 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 1991.

Description and history

Vermont Route 102 crosses the Nulhegan River just south of the village center and west of the Connecticut River. The bridge carrying the highway is a six-panel single-span steel Pratt through truss bridge, resting on concrete

abutments An abutment is the substructure at the ends of a bridge span or dam supporting its superstructure. Single-span bridges have abutments at each end which provide vertical and lateral support for the span, as well as acting as retaining walls ...

. Its length is and its width is , with a portal clearance height of . It stands about above the river and carries two lanes of traffic. The trusses are formed out of rolled

I-beams An I-beam, also known as H-beam (for universal column, UC), w-beam (for "wide flange"), universal beam (UB), rolled steel joist (RSJ), or double-T (especially in Polish, Bulgarian, Spanish, Italian and German), is a beam with an or -shaped ...

that were assembled on site using hydraulic riveting, a technology introduced in the 1920s. The decking consists of pavement laid on concrete over I-beams that are mounted on the truss bottom chords and riveted to their vertical elements. The bridge was built in 1937, and was built using standards and technologies introduced by the state during a bridge-building program introduced after a major flooding event in the state in 1927. It is a well-preserved example of a Pratt truss of the period, and the riveting technology enabled the bridge to be fabricated on site, rather than shipping the trusses from a factory.

References

{{NRHP in Essex County, Vermont Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Vermont Bridges completed in 1937 Bridges in Essex County, Vermont National Register of Historic Places in Essex County, Vermont Bloomfield, Vermont Steel bridges in the United States Pratt truss bridges in the United States 1937 establishments in Vermont

Description and history

See also

References