Hurricane Irene dumped 11 or more inches of rain as it traveled through Vermont on Sunday, leaving severe flooding in it's wake. Already called the worst storm in the past 70 years in Vermont, it took away a part of Vermont that I love--covered bridges.
Here is a video of the Bartonsville Covered Bridge being destroyed:
http://youtu.be/dVJ1kbaXiGE
The Bartonsville Covered Bridge was a wooden covered bridge in the village of Bartonsville, in Rockingham, Vermont, United States. It was built in 1870 by Sanford Granger. The bridge was a lattice truss style with a 151 foot span across the Williams River and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. And now it is gone.
But what is the most important thing to remember about this? I think my friend Jeff Joslin is right--the most important thing is that we as a people kept this bridge as long as we could. It was preserved as a part of our history until Mother Nature (probably assisted by the hand of man as the globe warms and our weather becomes more unpredictable as a result) took it away.
So what should we do? What can we learn? Preserve what we have as long as we can, so that our shared past can be seen and appreciated. Learn about our architectural past. How were these bridges built? What was innovative about their engineering and design? I love these bridges and now there are significantly fewer of them, but let's keep the ones that Irene left intact. These are not just picturesque, they are a part of our national heritage, to be treasured and understood.
I am acutely aware of this as I live on an historic property that has been extremely poorly cared for over the past several decades. May I heed my own words...
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