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Documenting North America's past & present covered bridges

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Combination, Orange County

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Inventory Number: VT/45-09-41#3x / NH-05-48#3x
County: Orange County / Grafton County
Township: Newbury - Haverhill
Town/Village: Wells River - Woodsville
Bridge Name: Combination
Crosses: Connecticut River & Shaeffer Hill Road
Truss type: Burr/Arch Deck
Spans: 2
Length: c300'
Roadway Width:
Built: 1852-53
Builder:
When Lost: 1903
Cause: Replaced
Latitude: N44 09.25
Longitude: W072 02.46
See a map of the area
Topographic map of the area
Directions: At the site of the railroad bridge between Woodsville and Wells River.

Combo Bridge, Woodsville, NH - Newbury, VT. Built 1852-53 Replaced 1903. 1853 picture of "Pehaungun" and "Winnepesauke" of the Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad.
New England Covered Bridges Datebook (1970), Colonial Publishing owned by Phyllis Wells

Combo Bridge, Woodsville, NH - Newbury, VT. Built 1852-53 Replaced 1903
Bill Caswell Collection

Combo Bridge, Woodsville, NH - Newbury, VT. Built 1852-53 Replaced 1903
Richard E. Roy Collection

Comments:
The charter for the Wells River Bridge was granted on December 27, 1803. The bridge was built in 1805 using a ledge of rocks above the mouth of the Wells River for the Vermont end. It was an open structure resting on wooden "horses". It was carried away the Spring freshet of 1807. A replacement was built in 1809 and lost during a freshet in 1812. Ferry service was reinstated until the next bridge was completed in the summer of 1820 located south of the two former bridges. The toll house was erected on the Haverhill side and was still standing in 1919. The bridge was rebuilt in 1836. Per the Vermont Journal (Windsor), May 3, 1850, "The recent rains, and the breaking up of the snow and ice near the sources of the streams, have caused an almost unprecedented swell in the waters, carrying off bridges and damaging all the Railroads.---The newly built portion of the old Bridge over the Connecticut at this place was carried off, last Tuesday [April 30, 1850] morning. We learn that the same fate befell the covered Bridge at Wells River village." Other articles confirm that this was the bridge across the Connecticut. An accounting of a train trip up the Connecticut River in the Aurora of the Valley (Newbury, VT), August 22, 1850 and identifies this Wells River crossing as a Lattice bridge. The span was immediately rebuilt. In 1852, the Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad was completing its tracks to Woodsville and needed a Connecticut River crossing. The railroad company offered the bridge proprietors a new bridge at their expense and to be maintained by them. Vehicles traveled inside the structure and two railroads shared the top deck, the Boston, Concord & Montreal Railroad and the Connecticut & Passumpsic Railroad. It opened on March 2, 1853. The bridge and "several rods of highway" to connect with the old ferry road near the present railroad bridge across the Wells River cost about $20,000. The bridge was strengthened and repaired in 1868 and new arches were added in 1876. Vehicles traveling through the interior of the bridge had to make sharp angled turns at the ends to avoid hitting the stone walls that supported the upper deck. Henry Campbell sided the bridge with his distinctive pattern of highlighting the arch. The bridge was still in excellent condition when it was replaced in 1903. The new steel bridge opened in February 1904. It was still a toll bridge for vehicles. Vehicle traffic was moved to a new free bridge in October 1917.

Sources:
Aurora of the Valley (Newbury, VT), August 22, 1850.
Whitcher, William F. History of the Town of Haverhill New Hampshire, 1919, pages 254-256
Connecticut River Valley Covered Bridge Society. Bulletin, Volume X, No. 2, Fall 1963, page 4

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