Whittier Bridge
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The Whittier Bridge is a historic wooden
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
Ossipee, New Hampshire Ossipee is a town in Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 4,372 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Carroll County. Ossipee, which includes several villages, is a resort area and home to part of Pine River S ...
. The bridge carried an old alignment of
New Hampshire Route 25 New Hampshire Route 25 is a long east–west state highway in New Hampshire. It runs completely across the state from Vermont to Maine. The western terminus of Route 25 is at the Vermont state line on the Connecticut River in Piermont, where the ...
(now Nudd Road and Old Covered Bridge Road) over the
Bearcamp River The Bearcamp River is a river at the southern edge of the White Mountains in New Hampshire, the United States. It is the largest tributary of Ossipee Lake, part of the Saco River watershed leading to the Atlantic Ocean. The Bearcamp River ris ...
. Built in 1870, it is one of New Hampshire's few surviving 19th-century covered bridges, and a rare example of a Paddleford truss. 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 1984. It was closed to vehicular traffic in 1989, and was removed from its footings for restoration in 2008. , the bridge is resting on Nudd Road adjacent to the crossing point.


Description and history

The Whittier Bridge site is located southwest of the village of West Ossipee, at a long-used crossing point of the Bearcamp River, which flows roughly southeast toward
Ossipee Lake Ossipee Lake is located in Carroll County in eastern New Hampshire, in the communities of Ossipee and Freedom. At , it is the sixth-largest lake located entirely in New Hampshire. The lake is fed by the West Branch (entering from the north), the ...
from the White Mountains to the northwest. The bridge is a single-span Paddleford truss, with a total length of and a clear span of . Its exterior is clad in vertical board siding, which after its most recent renovation only extended part way up the sides. The portal ends project at an angle to a gable. The abutments are dry-laid large granite blocks reinforced by concrete. Bridges have been documented at this location as early as 1792. The roadway was cut in the 1770s by Captain John Dudley on behalf of Ossipee's proprietors, predating the town's incorporation. Known locally as the Great Bridge, it served as part of the major east-west route (now NH 25) in the region, later joined by an important north-south (now NH 16), with the two meeting in West Ossipee. Bridges standing here were documented by the town as undergoing either major repairs or reconstructions in the 19th century. The bridge preceding this one was washed off the abutments by flooding in 1869, and was rebuilt on commission from Henry Banks, proprietor of the West Ossipee Hotel. It is named for poet
John Greenleaf Whittier John Greenleaf Whittier (December 17, 1807 – September 7, 1892) was an American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. Frequently listed as one of the fireside poets, he was influenced by the Scottish poet ...
, who summered at the hotel for several years in the 1870s. Like its predecessors, it has undergone a number of renovations and alterations. Laminated arches were added to strengthen it in the late 19th century, and steel supporting elements were added in the 1940s. It was again given a major restoration in 1983, at which time those elements were removed, and the full-height siding was replaced with the present shorter siding. The bridge was closed again to traffic in 1989, and in 2008 it was removed from the abutments. Having been placed on the Nudd Road approach, a timeline for the bridge to be restored has been established. A project to move the bridge back into place is moving forward with CPM Constructors out of Freeport, Maine and will likely start spring of 2022.


See also

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List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in New Hampshire __NOTOC__ This is a list of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. Bridges References External links {{HAER list, structure=bridge *List *List New Hampshire New Hampshire ...
*
List of bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire This is a list of bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. Current listings Former listing See also *List of covered bridges in New Hampshire Notes References {{National Register of Histo ...
*
List of covered bridges in New Hampshire This is a list of New Hampshire covered bridges, old, new, and restored. There are 58 historic wooden covered bridges currently standing and assigned official numbers by the U.S. state of New Hampshire. There are additional covered bridges extant ...
*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Carroll County, New Hampshire This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Carroll County, New Hampshire. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Carroll County, New Hamp ...


References


External links

* {{NRHP in Carroll County, New Hampshire Covered bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire Bridges completed in 1870 Wooden bridges in New Hampshire Tourist attractions in Carroll County, New Hampshire Bridges in Carroll County, New Hampshire Historic American Engineering Record in New Hampshire National Register of Historic Places in Carroll County, New Hampshire Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire Ossipee, New Hampshire Long truss bridges in the United States 1870 establishments in New Hampshire