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Basin Farm, Windham County

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Inventory Number: VT/45-13-66x
County: Windham County
Township: Westminster
Town/Village:
Bridge Name: Basin Farm
Crosses: Saxtons River
Truss type: Queen
Spans: 1
Length:
Roadway Width:
Built:
Builder:
When Lost: 1958
Cause: Collapsed
Latitude: N43 07.293
Longitude: W072 26.960
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Basin Farm Bridge, Westminster, Windham County, VT Lost 1958
Richard E. Roy Collection

Basin Farm Bridge, Westminster, Windham County, VT Collapsed 1958
Richard E. Roy Collection

Comments:
This was a private bridge just south of Bellows Falls. Per The Brattleboro Reformer, June 1, 1949, "BELLOWS FALLS---Covered bridge fans everywhere will envy Mr. and Mrs. G. P. James of the Basin Farm, who have their own private covered bridge. They got the bridge with the farm, which they acquired a few years ago, and it is truly a private bridge. Old timers remember when there wasn't any bridge. Horace Thompson, Bellow Falls paper manufacturer, who lived on Westminster Terrace overlooking the farm, came into possession of it many years ago and had the bridge put up. He bought a wooden railroad bridge complete in Canada and had it shipped to Bellows Falls. It didn't fit the gap to be crossed but it was big enough to clear the river in full flood and a short plank span was added to reach the bank. It didn't become a covered bridge until a few years ago when Robert Pierce, who grew up on Basin Farm but forsook it for the automobile business in Boston had a cover put on it to lengthen its life." It was known as the Red Bridge at Basin Farm. The roof was added around 1938. The bridge collapsed from years of neglect.

Sources:
The Brattleboro Reformer, June 1, 1949.
Allen, Richard S. & Morse Victor. Windham County's Famous Covered Bridges, 1960, page 41
Conwill, Joseph D.. Images of America - Vermont Covered Bridges, 2004, page 54

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