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The Maple Street Covered Bridge, also called the Lower Covered Bridge and the Fairfax Covered Bridge, is a
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 ...
that carries Maple Street across Mill Brook off State Route 104 in
Fairfax, Vermont Fairfax is a town in Franklin County, Vermont, United States. The population was 5,014 at the 2020 census. Geography The New England town of Fairfax is in southern Franklin County and is bordered by Chittenden County to the south. According to ...
. Built in 1865, it is the town's only historic covered bridge, and is a rare two-lane covered bridge in the state. 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 1974.


Description and history

The Maple Street Covered Bridge is located on the south side of Fairfax village, carrying Maple Street across Mill Brook, a tributary of the nearby
Lamoille River The Lamoille River is a river which runs through northern Vermont and drains into Lake Champlain. It is about in length, and has a drainage area of around . The river generally flows southwest, and then northwest, from the water divide of the Gree ...
, between the village center and Bellows Free Academy. The bridge is a single-span structure of
Town lattice A lattice bridge is a form of truss bridge that uses many small, closely spaced diagonal elements forming a lattice. The lattice Truss Bridge was patented in 1820 by architect Ithiel Town. Originally a design to allow a substantial bridge to be ma ...
design, set on
abutment 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 ...
s of stone and concrete. It is long and wide, with a roadway width of . Iron tie rods join the tops of the flanking trusses to provide lateral stability, and the bridge deck is made of wooden planking. The exterior is clad in vertical board siding, which ends short of the eaves on the sides. The siding extends a short way on the interior of each portal. with The bridge was built in 1865 by Kingsbury and Stone. It is the town's only surviving 19th-century covered bridge, and is rare in the state as an example of a two-lane bridge, built to accommodate significant village traffic. A major renovation was conducted in 1990-1991 by Jan Lewandoski. Debate is conducted to this day as to whether the bridge is now "backwards". When it was washed off its foundations by the Flood of 1927 it is unknown whether the bridge was put back on in the same direction as it was originally. Some say the eastern portal now faces west, and vice versa.Barna, Ed. ''Covered Bridges of Vermont''. The Countryman Press, 1996.


See also

* * * * *
List of covered bridges in Vermont Below is a list of covered bridges in Vermont. There are just over 100 authentic covered bridges in the U.S. state of Vermont, giving the state the highest number of covered bridges per square mile in the United States. A covered bridge is consid ...
*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Franklin County, Vermont __NOTOC__ This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Franklin County, Vermont. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Franklin County, Ve ...
*
List of bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Vermont This is a list of bridges and tunnels on the National Register of Historic Places in the U.S. state of Vermont. See also * List of covered bridges in Vermont * List of non-authentic covered bridges in Vermont References {{DEFAULTSORT:List ...


References


External links

{{NRHP in Franklin County, Vermont Buildings and structures in Fairfax, Vermont Bridges completed in 1865 Covered bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Vermont Wooden bridges in Vermont Covered bridges in Franklin County, Vermont National Register of Historic Places in Franklin County, Vermont Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Vermont Lattice truss bridges in the United States 1865 establishments in Vermont