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Rowell's 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 ...
in West Hopkinton, New Hampshire, which carries Rowell Bridge Road over the Contoocook River
The Contoocook River () is a river in New Hampshire. It flows from Contoocook Lake on the Jaffrey/ Rindge border to Penacook (just north of Concord), where it empties into the Merrimack River. It is one of only a few rivers in New Hampshire th ...
. The Long 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 ...
bridge was completed in 1853, and is one of New Hampshire's few surviving 19th-century covered bridges. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1976. It is named for Abram (or Abraham) Rowell, an early resident of the area.
Description and history
Rowell's Covered Bridge is in a rural setting in western Hopkinton, crossing the Contoocook River a short way north of the Contoocook River Dam. The bridge is just under wide and long, and consists of a single span supported by two modifiedLong
Long may refer to:
Measurement
* Long, characteristic of something of great duration
* Long, characteristic of something of great length
* Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate
* Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...
trusses resting on granite abutments. The trusses are distinctive in the addition of several arches, which consist of solid timbers that were spliced or butted together, and mortised into other truss members. The bridge's sturdy engineering was demonstrated by the addition of a central pier in the 20th century whose intent was to add strength. The pier, however, acted as a fulcrum
A fulcrum (: fulcra or fulcrums) is the support about which a lever pivots.
Fulcrum may also refer to:
Companies and organizations
* Fulcrum (Anglican think tank), a Church of England think tank
* Fulcrum Press, a British publisher of poetry
* Fu ...
, causing the bridge to seesaw under load and weakening its joints. The top of this pier was consequently removed, leaving the bridge largely as designed except for the addition of some metal reinforcing tie rod
A tie rod or tie bar (also known as a hanger rod if vertical) is a slender structural unit used as a tie and (in most applications) capable of carrying tensile loads only.
It is any rod or bar-shaped structural member designed to prevent the separ ...
s.
The bridge is the third to stand at this site, the oldest known to be standing here in 1793. That bridge was replaced in 1845, but was washed away by flooding in 1852. The present bridge was built in 1853 by Horace Childs. Its design is a variant of a design patented by West Hopkinton native Stephen H. Long, a civil engineer. Long helped further Childs' career as a bridge builder; Childs is known to have built covered bridges all over New England
New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...
and trained a following generation of builders. The bridge underwent a major restoration in 1965.
See also
*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 ...
*List of New Hampshire covered bridges
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 exta ...
*National Register of Historic Places listings in Merrimack County, New Hampshire
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Merrimack County, New Hampshire.
This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Merrimack County, New ...
References
External links
{{NRHP in Merrimack County, New Hampshire Covered bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire Bridges completed in 1852 Buildings and structures in Merrimack County, New Hampshire 1852 establishments in New Hampshire Hopkinton, New Hampshire National Register of Historic Places in Merrimack County, New Hampshire Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in New Hampshire Wooden bridges in New Hampshire Burr Truss bridges in the United States