• Part of National Covered Bridges Recording Project
• There is an agreement between HAER, National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges, and Case Western Reserve University to test and reconstruct the bridge. It was shipped to Cleveland for extensive testing. The reconstruction of the bridge was led by Timothy Andrews, Barns and Bridges of New England, assisted by Will Truax. Dario Gasparini led the engineering studies at Case Western Reserve University. Project assistance was provided by David Wright and Vern Mesler.
• Significance: In 1891-93, the Concord & Montreal Railroad built a 30-mile, single-track branch line from its main line at Whitefield, NH to Berlin, where lumber and paper industries were booming. The line passed through the towns of Jefferson, Randolph, and Gorham, along the northern edge of the Presidential Range. Shortly after the line's completion, the Boston & Maine Railroad leased the branch for 91 years.

No information has been found concerning the first bridge at this location, but presumably it was a wood structure. The years of WWI brought the need for longer, heavier, and faster freight loads on this division and much of the line was upgraded to accommodate heavier rolling stock. This bridge is one of three known Howe pony truss bridges that were built on the line in 1918 and one of only two that survive. While it was accepted that wood bridges might have a shorter service life that steel bridges, they were economical to build, could be easily repaired, and gave evidence of distress long before failure. The Howe pony truss was the truss of choice for shorter spans on Boston & Maine lines. Patented in 1840 by Massachusetts millwright William Howe, the Howe truss addressed the inherent difficulty on constructing tension connections in wood by using adjustable wrought iron rods instead of wood posts for vertical tension members. The Howe truss was favored by railroads for its rigidity and simple framing connections, and was used extensively on railroad lines in the United States and Europe in the nineteenth century...

• Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N1252
• Survey number: HAER NH-48
• Building/structure dates: 1918 Initial Construction

Related names:

Concord and Montreal Railroad; Howe, William; Guilford Transportation; New Hampshire and Vermont Railroad; New Hampshire Division of Parks and Recreation (Department of Resources and Economic Development); Marston, Christopher H, project manager; Federal Highway Administration's National Historic Covered Bridge Preservation Program, sponsor; Kidd, Anne E, field team project manager; Mauro, Jeremy T, field team; Rowley, Bradley M, field team; Bartha, Csaba, field team; Case Western Reserve University, consultant; Andrews, Timothy, consultant; Gasparini, Dario, faculty sponsor; Wright, David, consultant; Mesler, Vern, consultant; National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges, sponsor; Christianson, Justine, transmitter