I happened by the site of the former Bartonsville Covered Bridge last Saturday. You may recall this quintessential Vermont backdrop to so many photos of the Rutland, and Green Mountain Railroads, was completely destroyed last August by floods caused by Tropical Storm Irene.

In the last few weeks this location has seen some major progress toward returning the site to its former splendor. The reproduction covered bridge is being constructed next to a temporary steel bridge which was set up in place of the original 1870 Covered Bridge.

Once the reproduction is complete it will be moved by cranes into the exact location of the original.

Stephen

Wonderful news! Thanks so much for brightening up an otherwise wet and dreary day.

It was heartbreaking to see the videos of the original being washed away last year.

Steve Hunter
Cardinal, Ontario

It would be cool to see the covered bridge in Phillips replicated. Sorry for the photo below, it is the only one on the web I could find...

http://mgrsmembers.blogspot.com/2009/01/first-train-on-new-bridge.html

Interesting, thanks for posting.

There's a similar 'temp' bridge near the Crawford's notch station on the Conway in NH.

Bob H

The south truss goes up...thanks to Bartonsville Rebuilding Committee for the image.

An article was published in today's (10/12/12) Rutland Herald regarding the reconstruction of this bridge and other bridges across Vermont. Apparently the body which had insured many of the covered bridges in Vermont originally only insured the covering structure rather than the entire bridge. They have now changed their policy which to insure the entire bridge including the actual bridge structure and its covering. I believe this change of policy will allow more money to be released for several bridge reconstructions in Vermont.

Stephen Piwowarski

The rebuilding of this wonderful bridge strikes me as a inadvertent history lesson as a glimpse of a small fraction of what it took to assemble the original without the benefit of modern techniques and tools we take for granted. It certainly is a worthy replacement rather than a nondescript contemporary design. It made me realise that bridges are so integral to the history of transportation. This post made me reflect on all the historic bridges gone by the wayside as well as those preserved.

Are those square pegs that are driven into square holes?

I can't speak for exactly what's being done at Bartonsville, but historically it was common practice in wooden frame construction in the 1700s and 1800s to pound a square peg (in this case called a "trunnel" or "treenail") into a round hole to assure, over time, a tighter, non-slipping fit. This was essentially standard practice for Town lattice trusses such as this.

That is interesting, and it makes sense. I can see the point of getting a tighter fit by having a square peg to shear into round fit with a round hole as it is driven in. Also, it seems like it would be easier to make a round hole than a square one; and easier to make a square peg than a round one.

But driving the square peg into a round hole seems like it would shear the peg all the way to the end that stands outside of the hole after driving. Since the shearing is with the grain, it would amount to splitting, which would continue to the end of the peg. But the pegs in the photos retain a square shape, at least in the exposed “head” portion.

My guess is that they made square holes for square pegs for this bridge reconstruction.

In this era of woodworking, square holes would be relatively easy to produce. But does it follow historic practice? And if it does not, does it at least offer some structural advantage? I can’t see one.

If there is no structural advantage, and if they did indeed make square holes for square the square pegs, might this be due to a misinterpretation of historical practice? If somebody merely stipulated that the pegs should be square for historical accuracy, one might then easily conclude that the holes need to be square.

You know what they always say about the futility of trying to put a square peg into a round hole.

More than you probably cared to know about covered bridges, in an official Federal Highway Administration manual for which I was a consultant:

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/re ... /index.cfm

That is quite comprehensive, but I don't readily find information on the pegs and holes. Do you know where that might be located?

They are square-ended round pegs, pounded into round holes.

Stephen

Stephen,

Thanks for that information. I wonder why they would want a square head, or any head at all for that matter. A head made with its thickness with the grain like the pegs they made, would not have much ability to resist simply splitting off. I am curious about the rationale for this detail.

Probably to keep them from looking "modern". The originals were likely split out of a blank with a frow, then cut roughly round with a drawknife. The modern ones are likely turned on a lathe. The originals would have a square end where the trunnel was clamped while being worked round, which then took the brunt of the driving force, and was cut off. Or not. Since round dowels are really going to look out of character, I suppose they just decided to leave some square stock for effect.