At the end of a trip to New Hampshire last October, we broke the journey back to Boston at Campton to visit Blair Bridge, a well-known covered bridge. I had always wondered why covered rather than uncovered bridges were built in New England and learned that, given the fact they were wooden, having them covered protected the structure from the elements and made it last longer. Given the age of some of these bridges, that approach apparently worked. I was also very impressed by the complexity of the design with the main bridge structure supported by pairs of composite wooden arches along each side and diagonal cross-bracing stiffening the frame and supporting the roof.

#bridges