Holmes Creek Bridge, built circa 1870, is 41 feet long and 12 feet wide, a width specified by the selectmen to allow passage of a “load of hay, high and wide.” There may have been an 1840 bridge at this site, but town records cannot verify it. The bridge is reputed to be the shortest covered highway bridge in use in New England, and at 112 feet above sea level it is the lowest altitude covered bridge in Vermont. Its kingpost tied-arch construction, rare in its time, includes a tie below the deck comprising a stringer that runs the length of the bridge and whose ends are supported by abutments. In the late 1800s, the Holmes family operated a successful apple orchard just southwest of the bridge, purported to be the largest in New England and shipping apples to distant places. At the point of land west of the bridge are submerged pilings of a long pier where boats docked to load the fruit.
