Finding Old Bridges
In my last post I wrote about seeking out covered bridges in the Bath, New Hampshire area. I had to report for jury duty at the Grafton County Court House which is about 45 minutes from my home. When I got there jury duty was cancelled, I guess they ran out of criminals, but I had planned ahead and had my car packed for an afternoon of exploring and photographing. Turned out I had all morning.
The season is still rather blah here in Norther New England. Early May and its still cold and damp but at least it wasn’t raining as I explored around the Woodsville, Bath, and North Haverhill region of the state.
My typically MO for finding spots like these is to randomly drive around the area until something catches my eye or I see a historic marker. One time I was so deep in the backwoods of middle Vermont, in the Peachem area that I came across a great old covered bridge but I was surprised by the number of people milling around the area. I asked one of people how the heck they ended up there. I guess I went so far in one direction that there was a town closer in the opposite direction. Anyway I typically just follow roads with town name in them. I also make sure I have a full tank of gas as gas stations are few and far between in the rural areas of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
If I really get stuck I have the GPS unit in the car but that doesn’t always work very well on the dirt backroads especially with overcast skies and/or mountains. My real friend are my copies of the DeLorme Gazetter which include maps of every area in the state and mark special features such as bridges, state parks, waterfalls an other points of interest.
New resource for finding old historic bridges
Recently I found a new (at least new to me) resource for finding old bridges. http://bridgehunter.com/
Bridgehunter.com is a database of historic or notable bridges in the United States, past and present.
This is a great database of bridges across the United States. Existing bridges as well as old bridges that have succumbed to time, age and progress.
You can see more of my old bridge photographs from Hawaii to Vermont to Maine to New Hampshire to Montana etc by following this link: http://edward-fielding.pixels.com/art/bridge