Sayre's Bridge in Thetford, Vermont

Thetford, Vermont is home to the 134 feet long Sayre's Bridge.  Located only about 1/4 mile outside Thetford on Tucker Hill Road, the bridge was built in 1839 to provide local families a means to cross the Ompompanoosuc River.  It was constructed as a single span using what has been called a "Haupt Truss" with arch support design.  Not until 1963 was a mid-stream support added.  Recently the bridge underwent a major five month, $814,000 rehabilitation and was officially reopened to traffic on October 10, 2007.  

The waterpower provided by the river in this location once served eight sawmills, four gristmills, a straw-board and paper mill, two flannel factories, a carriage shop and bedstead factory, an edge tool and trip-hammer works, and the Sayre Brothers furniture mill.

While I'm there, a local stops to talk and shares a bit of history regarding the bridge.  Apparently, a few short years ago, a lady and her two small children were crossing in the dead of winter with lots of ice and snow buildup on the floor of the bridge.  If you'll notice on the previous post, many bridges were constucted with extra timbers on the floor to provide raised parallel "tracks" for vehicles to roll on.  I can only assume this was to create a wear surface which was easily replaceble instead of having to re-floor the entire bridge as the surfaces wore down under vehicular traffic. 

According to story, the lady was crossing when ice buildup on the raised panels caused her car to slide off violently enough to crash through the bridge, and plummet into the icy waters below. Fortunately for her and the children, a local fireman was approaching the bridge at the same time and was able to rescue all three from a certain disaster.  Secondary to the incident, the town counsel voted to reconstruct the floor without the raised panels and thus the reason for it's current flooring configuration.  Seeing how strongly these structures are built inside, it's difficult for me to imagine crashing completely through the side of one but...........that's what the gentleman says happened and he seemed to know what he was talking about.  I just love learning these little tid-bits from the locals.