Fall in NH: Gilford's covered bridge one of less than 100 statewide

GILFORD — An array of idyllic scenes come to mind when picturing the perfection of New England autumn: corn mazes with scarecrows standing sentry, kids dressed as superheroes, princesses and ghosts cantering along a leaf-blanketed sidewalk, an impressionist splattering of color on hillsides. Among them is the covered bridge.

The chill of forecasted snow was in the air Tuesday as rust-colored leaves rained down from a clear sky over the Tannery Hill Bridge. The bridge is headed into its first hearty New England winter since a full reconstruction of one of its supports was completed in May.

Just over a year ago, the town was forced to lift the bridge off its cradle to save it: the southern of the two rock walls that hold it over Gunstock Brook had begun to collapse in heavy rains at the end of the summer. The Tannery Hill bridge runs over a sewer line, said Meghan Theriault, head of Gilford’s Department of Public Works, raising the stakes of the repair. The bridge had been on the New Hampshire Department of Transportation red list since 2010, meaning it was structurally deficient. 

“That was a risk we didn’t want to take,” Theriault said. 

Using an emergency permit from the state Department of Environmental Services, $180,000 in bridge aid funds and $145,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds, according to Theriault, repairs on the bridge started at the tail end of last winter and completed in May. 

Covered bridges originally were engineered to shield their own structure, rather than travelers, from the elements, increasing their longevity. Though it was not urgently compromised, the town originally looked into getting some needed repairs done on the northern side, but because of costs, it was cut from the scope of the final project, Theriault said.

There were once more than 350 covered bridges in New Hampshire, according to Kim Varney Chandler, a historian and connoisseur of the state's covered bridges. Last fall, she published a book featuring each of the about 70 remaining bridges.

The Tannery Hill Bridge is one of only three in the county. The other two are located in Belmont. Unlike most other covered bridges in the state, according to Chandler, the Tannery Hill Bridge is not open to vehicle traffic.

Only 46 of the remaining bridges, Chandler said, are more than 100 years old — the Tannery Hill Bridge was built in 1995 as a project by the Gilford Rotary Club. Though it is a newer bridge, she continued, bridgewright Tim Andrews used a traditional town’s lattice truss design and construction methods. 

“There have been new bridges built over the last 40 years or 50 years,” Chandler said. “The ones that are built using as authentic methods and truss design as possible just continue to add back to our community what we've lost.”