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Mount Orne, Essex County

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Inventory Number: VT/45-05-03#2 / NH-04-08#2
County: Essex County / Coös County
Township: Lunenburg - Lancaster
Town/Village:
Bridge Name: Mount Orne
Crosses: Connecticut River
Truss type: Howe
Spans: 2
Length: 266'
Roadway Width:
Built: 1911
Builder: Berlin Construction Company & Babbitt Brothers
When Lost: standing
Cause:
Latitude: N44 27.612
Longitude: W071 39.170
See a map of the area
Topographic map of the area
Directions: 1.5 miles east of Lunenburg on US2, then 0.3 miles south on River Rd. and just left on Mt. Orne Bridge Rd.

Mount Orne Bridge, Lancaster, NH - Lunenburg, VT Built 1911
Bill Caswell Photo (2003)

Mount Orne Bridge, NH & VT, during reconstruction in November 1983. Photo taken by Ruth & Richard Tatton.
Richard E. Roy Collection

Mount Orne Bridge, Lancaster, NH - Lunenburg, VT Built 1911
Bob Sheldon Photo, September 11, 2011

Mount Orne Bridge, Lancaster, NH - Lunenburg, VT Built 1911
Bill Caswell Photo, September 8, 2013

Comments:
14-panel truss. The first bridge at this site was constructed in the 1860s or 70s to connect the towns Lancaster and Lunenburg. The owner, Union Bridge Company, operated it as a toll bridge until it was destroyed by a log jam in 1908. Ferry service connected the two communities until a new bridge was built in 1911. Each town contributed $2,500. The remaining $1,678 was raised by subscription. The yellow pine timber for the bridge was precut and assembled at the site. In 1969, a truck loaded with highway salt dropped through the deck and landed on the ice below. The front of the truck hooked on a steel rod in the bridge while rear rested on the ice. The truck was raised, disengaged from the bridge, and lowered to the ice. It was quickly dragged away from the salt weakened area, turned upright and loaded onto a flatbed on the Vermont side of the river. The bridge was closed on July 5, 1983 for twelve weeks to allow rehabilitation by the state of New Hampshire at a cost of $133,000. Funding came from the towns of Lancaster and Lunenburg, the states of New Hampshire and Vermont, and a federal Historic Preservation Fund matching grant from the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior through the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources. The rededication of the bridge took place on November 23, 1983. The Mt.Orne Bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Sources:
Marshall, Richard G.. New Hampshire Covered Bridges : A Link With Our Past, 1994, page 57
National Society For the Preservation of Covered Bridges. Covered Bridge Topics, Volume V, No. 2, June 1947, pages 4 & 8
Knoblock, Glenn A.. New Hampshire Covered Bridges, 2002, page 62
National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges. World Guide to Covered Bridges, 2021, page 141

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