National Register of Historic Places

Gold Brook Covered Bridge

Stowe, Lamoille County, Vermont
Listed
September 30, 1974
Type
Structure
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
74000224

About this property

Gold Brook Covered Bridge, also known as Stowe Hollow Bridge or Emily's Bridge, is a small wooden covered bridge in the town of Stowe, Lamoille County, Vermont, carrying Covered Bridge Road over Gold Brook. Built in 1844, it is the only 19th-century covered bridge in the state built using wooden Howe trusses and carrying a public roadway. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The Gold Brook Covered Bridge is located in the Stowe Hollow area of southeastern Stowe, carrying Covered Bridge Road across Gold Brook just north of a junction with Gold Brook Road and Stowe Hollow Road. The bridge is a single-span Howe truss, 48.5 feet (14.8 m) long and 17 feet (5.2 m) wide, with a roadway width of 13.5 feet (4.1 m). It is covered by a gabled metal roof and rests on dry-laid stone abutments. The exterior is sheathed in vertical board siding, which extends most of the way to the eaves, leaving a narrow strip open at the top. The siding extends around the portals and a short way to their insides. The bridge decking is wooden planking. The bridge was built about 1844 by John W. Smith, and is the state's only surviving example of a Howe truss in timber on a public roadway. It is also a comparatively early example of the truss type in general; the Howe truss was patented in 1840. It is furthermore the only surviving 19th-century covered bridge in the town of Stowe. The Gold Brook Covered Bridge was featured as one of the haunted locations on the Paranormal TV series Most Terrifying Places in America episode titled "Cursed Towns", which aired on the Travel Channel in 2018. It told the legend of Emily, a teenage bride-to-be who was from a poor family. It is said by locals that in the 1850s, she fell in love with a young man from a rich family, but his parents refused the wedding. He told her to wait on the bridge for him at midnight, but when he didn't show up, she was so distraught, that she jumped off the bridge into the brook below and died. Locals report that her ghost is still lingering on the bridge that was nicknamed after her. National Register of Historic Places listings in Lamoille County, Vermont List of bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Vermont

Location

Stowe, Lamoille County, Vermont
44.44037, -72.67993

Categories

ENGINEERINGTRANSPORTATION
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Moscow Village Historic District
Listed
1.7 mi
Stowe Village Historic District
Listed
1.8 mi
Waterbury Center Methodist Church
Industrial
4.6 mi
Green Mountain Seminary
Industrial
4.7 mi
Red Covered Bridge
Civil War
5.4 mi

Questions about this property

When was Gold Brook Covered Bridge listed on the National Register?

Gold Brook Covered Bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 30, 1974.

What type of historic resource is Gold Brook Covered Bridge?

Gold Brook Covered Bridge is classified as a structure in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Gold Brook Covered Bridge?

The period of significance for Gold Brook Covered Bridge is recorded as the industrial era.

Can I research the history near Gold Brook Covered Bridge?

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