Comstock Covered Bridge

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SCIENCETECH · HISTORICAL MARKER

Historical Marker Database · Michael Herrick

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Science & Tech

THE STORY

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Narrated · Plays hands-free in Travel Mode

Built in 1873 by the towns of Colchester and East Hampton, Comstock Covered Bridge is one of only three historic covered bridges remaining in Connecticut. Its 80-foot main span uses a Howe-patent truss, a major bridge project for its day. Colchester authorized rebuilding Comstock’s Bridge on April 7, 1873, and two weeks later East Hampton, then called Chatham, agreed to fund half the cost, with the Salmon River forming the boundary between the two towns. The bridge cost $3,958.59 at a time when common laborers earned $1.00 a day. Although the original resolution called for an iron bridge, the selectmen chose wood, possibly because timber trusses were proven technology, iron bridges were still innovative, some people distrusted iron after dramatic failures such as the 1873 collapse of an iron-trussed bridge in Dixon, Illinois, and iron also cost more because the American iron and steel industry was still in its infancy. The first bridge at this location was built in the 1700s, when crossings of this type typically used multiple short spans on river piers, and during the American Revolution the crossing, then called Salmon Bridge, was used by a French cavalry legion under the Duc de Lauzon before it continued to join George Washington’s army in Phillipsburg, New York. Because wooden bridges usually lasted only 20 to 30 years, earlier bridges here were likely rebuilt several times. The name came from Christopher Comstock, a long-time resident on the East Hampton side of the river in the 18th century who died in 1808 at age 82 and who, with his younger brother Abner, at one time owned a sawmill and gristmill upstream; the name also came to identify the nearby settlement that grew around the mills and for a time had its own post office. After serving travelers for almost 60 years, the bridge was replaced in 1932 by a concrete bridge just downstream and was then transferred to Connecticut as part of the Salmon River State Forest. In the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps carried out a major overhaul, adding a new wood-shingled roof, siding salvaged from an old barn, a new window on the north side, wooden gates at the portals, and replacement timbers in the main chords, while Camp Stuart’s 200 workers also built roads, hiking trails, and fishing-access spots in the forest. The bridge was repaired again in the early 1970s with 3/8-inch steel plates bolted to reinforce the joints and a replaced wood-shingle roof, and a third rehabilitation program in 2011 was expected to give it many more years of service. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The bridge’s Howe truss was based on the design patented in 1840 by William Howe, a Massachusetts carpenter-builder whose wood-and-iron system used iron tie rods in tension and wooden timbers in compression, reduced complex joinery, and became widely used for railroad and highway bridges until metal bridges became cheaper. Covered bridges were roofed and sided chiefly to protect timber structural members and floors from cycles of wetting, drying, precipitation, and sun, extending their useful life.

PHOTOS

Photo: Michael Herrick