Covered bridge now on Williams River banks

The 1870 Bartonsville Covered Bridge now sits, twisted and broken in places, on a sand and gravel beach along the Williams River in Rockingham.

For info on donating to restore the Bartonsville bridge, click here.

(Photo by Lisa Currier)

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110906/NEWS02/709069982

Covered bridge now on Williams River banks


Steve Chadwick stands in front of the beached Bartonsville Covered Bridge, which now rests on the banks of the Williams Rivers in Rockingham, about a quarter mile downstream from its original crossing.

Susan Smallheer / STAFF PHOTO


By SUSAN SMALLHEER
Staff Writer - Published: September 6, 2011

LOWER BARTONSVILLE — Steve Chadwick clambered over the Bartonsville Covered Bridge, twisted and busted in places, but on dry land, and he marveled at how much of the 1870 bridge survived its crash landing.

The bridge, which was dramatically swept off its footings during the height of flooding by Tropical Storm Irene on Aug. 28, failed to navigate a sharp curve in the Williams River and beached itself on its banks.

The bridge came to rest on land owned by Chadwick’s sister and brother-in-law, Stacy and Chuck Harriman.

The town of Rockingham, which owns the bridge, hopes to salvage as much of the 1870 structure as possible in its efforts to rebuild it. It is one of three town-owned covered bridges.

Chadwick, whose family is from Springfield, said no one was at the family’s fledgling vineyard property Sunday when the bridge crashed into trees and caught on a gravel bar on the side of the river.

The town has already started raising funds to rebuild the bridge and to augment the town’s $1 million insurance policy.

The bridge’s slipping away was caught on video by Bartonsville resident Susan Hammond. Many Bartonsville residents, who were closely watching the bridge at the height of Irene’s fury Sunday afternoon, said it floated away like an ark on the floodwaters.

Chadwick said the bridge is now on its side. Much of the green roofing floated downstream, but the bridge, which had undergone an ambitious rehabilitation effort within the past decade, appears surprisingly intact but heavily damaged.

Thomas MacPhee, chairman of the Rockingham Select Board, said no structural engineer had examined the Bartonsville bridge, so he said he was speaking mostly from hope, rather than hard facts.

“There are a lot more questions that need to be answered,” he said. The bridge, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, may be eligible for special federal funding to help in its restoration or rebuilding.

“There’s a fair amount of damage. I think we can salvage a lot,” he said.

The town is also looking into putting in a temporary bridge across the Williams River, to reconnect Lower Bartonsville with the rest of the town while the rebuilding project gets under way.

“It’s certainly a possibility,” he said.

The Chadwick family discovered the bridge Aug. 29 as they started their cleanup effort.

MacPhee said Monday the town has posted the land against trespassers in coordination with the Harriman and Chadwick families, in an effort to keep people out of the young vineyard, which was damaged in the flooding, and to keep people from taking souvenirs from the bridge.

On Saturday, the Harriman and Chadwick families were working to put things back in order in their small vineyard, as the hulk of the bridge sat in the distance. The raging river had deposited a thick layer of sticky, silty sand everywhere, and there were large deposits of river rocks as well.

MacPhee said Harriman himself kicked him off the property last week before he realized he was from the town.

“I don’t blame him. His attorney said he didn’t have liability insurance and he’s got to keep people off his property,” MacPhee said Monday.

“The town put up the signs,” said MacPhee, on the advice of the town’s attorney.

As for the town’s other two covered bridges, the Worall Covered Bridge, just downstream from the Bartonsville bridge, will have to be dismantled and rebuilt, and the Hall Covered Bridge over the Saxtons River needs work on its abutments before it can be reopened to traffic, MacPhee said.

MacPhee said he had already asked Hammond, who took the now-famous video of the bridge, and another Bartonsville resident, Anna Dewdney, to co-chair the rebuilding committee, but he said he needed to confirm that with the full Rockingham board.

MacPhee said he was getting calls from people all over New England who wanted to contribute to the bridge rebuilding effort. He said people can access information about contributing at the town’s website, www.rockbf.org.