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Documenting North America's past & present covered bridges

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Newfield, Tompkins County

If you find errors in the data please contact Bill Caswell.

If you would like to provide information on covered bridges that no longer exist from your state, or adopt a state to work on, we would certainly welcome your assistance. Please contact Trish Kane for more information.

Inventory Number: NY/32-55-01
County: Tompkins County
Township:
Town/Village: Newfield
Bridge Name: Newfield
Crosses: West Branch, Cayuga Creek
Truss type: Town & Arch
Spans: 1
Length: 115'
Roadway Width:
Built: 1853
Builder: Samuel Hamm, Benjamin Starr, and Richard Russell
When Lost: standing
Cause:
Latitude: N42 21.784
Longitude: W076 35.427
See a map of the area
Topographic map of the area
Directions: 2.7 miles southwest of jct NY34/96 on NY13, then left 0.3 miles on Main St. then go right at Y 0.6 miles on Bank St, then 0.1 miles left on Bridge St.

Newfield Bridge, Newfield, Tompkins County, NY Built 1853
Todd Clark Collection

Newfield Bridge, Newfield, Tompkins County, NY Built 1853
Trish Kane Photo (October 2003)

Newfield Bridge, Newfield, Tompkins County, NY Built 1853
Bill Caswell Photo, December 2006

Comments:
Clearance 9'. According to the National Register nomination form, the contract for the bridge was let in 1851. It was part of a plank road leading north to Ithaca and needed to cross a deep ravine. Stone masons Benjamin Starr and Dick Russell laid abutments for the bridge. The carpenters were Samuel Hamm and his two sons David and Sylvester, David Dassance, and Patchen Parsons. It was completed and opened to traffic in 1853 at a cost of about $800. Mill workers crossed from their residences to factories located on the opposite stream bank; farmers in the surrounding region and manufacturers at Newfield used the bridge to transport agricultural products, raw materials and finished goods to markets at Ithaca via the plank road. When the bridge became unserviceable in the 1960s, local preservationists rallied community support for restoration. In 1972, Milton Graton added a pair of laminated wood arches (12” by 32”) carried on poured concrete shoulder abutments. In 1998, the bridge received a new wood deck and wood shingle roof and was re-painted. Tompkins County also carried out extensive streambank stabilization along Cayuga Creek at the bridge site. The bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 25, 2000.

Sources:
New York State Covered Bridge Society. Courier, 1966-present, Volume 2, number 1 (February 1967), pages 7 & 8
National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges. World Guide to Covered Bridges, 2021, page 59

Compilation 2026 Covered Spans of Yesteryear

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