The Lover's Leap Bridge is a
wrought-iron
Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" t ...
lenticular truss
A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure.
In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembla ...
bridge over the
Housatonic River
The Housatonic River ( ) is a river, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United S ...
located in
Lovers Leap State Park in
New Milford, Connecticut
New Milford is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The town is in western Connecticut, north of Danbury, on the banks of the Housatonic River, and it shares its border with the northeastern shore of Candlewood Lake. It is t ...
. Built in 1895 by the
Berlin Iron Bridge Company
The Berlin Iron Bridge Company was a Berlin, Connecticut company that built iron bridges and buildings that were supported by iron. It is credited as the architect of numerous bridges and buildings now listed on the U.S. National Register of His ...
, it is one of the last bridges built by the company and is a particularly ornate example of its work. 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 1976
and is now open only for foot traffic.
Description and history
The Lover's Leap Bridge is located south of downtown New Milford, in the northern part of Lovers Leap State Park. It spans the Housatonic River a short way downstream of its confluence with the
Still River, and just south of a bridge carrying Still River Drive. It is accessible on foot from parking areas near either end, along the former alignment of Pumpkin Hill Road, which it originally carried. It is a single-span wrought-iron lenticular truss, in length, resting on coursed stone abutments. Its truss elements are joined by pins. The posts at the ends are topped by urn finials, and the crossing latticework elements at the portal ends are arched and crowned by cresting. Crossing elements of the guard rails are decorated with rosettes.
[
The bridge was built in 1895 by the ]Berlin Iron Bridge Company
The Berlin Iron Bridge Company was a Berlin, Connecticut company that built iron bridges and buildings that were supported by iron. It is credited as the architect of numerous bridges and buildings now listed on the U.S. National Register of His ...
. This was one of the last bridges manufactured by the company out of iron, which had mostly been supplanted by steel as a preferred bridge building material by that time.
See also
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References
External links
Connecticut Historic Highway Bridges
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{{National Register of Historic Places
Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
Historic American Engineering Record in Connecticut
Lenticular truss bridges in the United States
New Milford, Connecticut
Bridges in Litchfield County, Connecticut
National Register of Historic Places in Litchfield County, Connecticut
Bridges over the Housatonic River
Wrought iron bridges in the United States