The Morgan Covered Bridge, also known as the Upper Covered Bridge is a wooden

covered bridge A covered bridge is a timber-truss bridge with a roof, decking, and siding, which in most covered bridges create an almost complete enclosure. The purpose of the covering is to protect the wooden structural members from the weather. Uncovered woo ...

that crosses the North Branch

Lamoille River The Lamoille River is a river which runs through northern Vermont and drains into Lake Champlain. It is about in length, and has a drainage area of around . The river generally flows southwest, and then northwest, from the water divide of the ...

in Belvidere, Vermont on Morgan Bridge Road. Built about 1887, it is one of the two covered bridges in Belvidere, and one of five in a five-mile span that all cross the same river. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1974.

Description

The Morgan Covered Bridge is located west of the center of Belvidere, carrying Morgan Bridge Road, a short connector between Back Road (running on the north side of the North Branch Lamoille River) and Vermont Route 109 (running to its south). It is a single-span

Queen post A queen post is a tension member in a truss that can span longer openings than a king post truss. A king post uses one central supporting post, whereas the queen post truss uses two. Even though it is a tension member, rather than a compression ...

truss structure, long and wide, with a roadway width of . Its trusses include iron rods joining the apexes of the diagonals to the bottom chords. It has a gabled metal roof, and its exterior is finished in vertical board siding, which wraps around to the insides of the portals. The siding stops short of the eaves, leaving an open strip below the roof. The portal openings are framed as segmented arches. The bridge rests on

abutment An abutment is the substructure at the ends of a bridge span or dam supporting its superstructure. Single-span bridges have abutments at each end that provide vertical and lateral support for the span, as well as acting as retaining walls ...

s of stone and concrete. with

History

The bridge was built by Lewis Robinson, Charles Leonard and Fred Tracy. It is one of two 19th-century covered bridges (the other is the Mill Covered Bridge further west), and one of five on the North Branch Lamoille in Belvidere or neighboring Waterville, all within a five-mile span. There have been no major repairs necessary with this bridge recently, save for a new standing seam metal roof which a large number of covered bridges in Vermont received due to a grant. A study in the 1990s by the

Vermont Agency of Transportation The Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) is a government agency of the U.S. state of Vermont that is responsible for planning, constructing, and maintaining a variety of transportation infrastructure in the state. This includes roads, bridge ...

revealed that certain design details of the trusses allowed the bridge to be rated for a 9-ton load (1 ton more than the standard load limit for wooden deck bridges). At this time, a sign at the bridge posts the limit at 5 tons. Morgancoveredbridge

References

External links

* {{NRHP in Lamoille County, Vermont Buildings and structures in Belvidere, Vermont Bridges completed in 1887 Covered bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Vermont Wooden bridges in Vermont Covered bridges in Lamoille County, Vermont Historic American Engineering Record in Vermont National Register of Historic Places in Lamoille County, Vermont Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Vermont Lattice truss bridges in the United States 1887 establishments in Vermont

Description

History

See also

References

External links