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Bridge Street, Franklin County

If you find errors in the data please contact Bill Caswell.

If you would like to provide information on covered bridges that no longer exist from your state, or adopt a state to work on, we would certainly welcome your assistance. Please contact Trish Kane for more information.

Inventory Number: VT/45-06-34x
County: Franklin County
Township: Sheldon
Town/Village: Sheldon
Bridge Name: Bridge Street
Crosses: Black Creek
Truss type: Burr
Spans: 1
Length: 50'
Roadway Width:
Built: c1836
Builder:
When Lost: 05 Apr 1932
Cause: Burned
Latitude: N44 52.89
Longitude: W072 56.61
See a map of the area
Topographic map of the area
Directions: Bridge Street at Sheldon.

Bridge Street Bridge, Sheldon, Franklin County, VT Built c1836 Lost 1920s or 1931 or 1932
Richard Donovan / Trish Kane Collection

Bridge Street Bridge, Sheldon, Franklin County, VT Built c1836 Lost 1920s or 1931 or 1932
Richard E. Roy Collection

Bridge Street Bridge, Sheldon, Franklin County, VT Built c1836 Lost 1920s or 1931 or 1932
Richard Sanders Allen Collection, NSPCB Archives

Bridge Street Bridge, Sheldon, Franklin County, VT Built c1836 Burned 05 Apr 1932
Todd Clark Collection

Comments:
Double barrel. On October 19, 1864, 22 Confederate soldiers led by Lieutenant Bennett H. Young traveled into Vermont from Canada. At three o'clock in the afternoon they donned their uniforms and entered the three banks in St. Albans. After killing one man and wounding others, they escaped with $208,000. As they passed through Sheldon, they threw phosphorous into the double-lane bridge and set it on fire. Sheldon residents were able to extinguish the fire, but the Confederates were able to retreat into Canada. According to notes in the NSPCB archives, this bridge burned in 1931. Per The Burlington Free Press, July 14, 2016, "The bridge kept the town united until an April night in 1932. Fire broke out in one of the adjacent stores and soon spread along all of Post Office Square. The wooden bridge caught fire and burned until it fell into the creek."

Sources:
Allen, Richard Sanders. Covered Bridges of the Northeast - Revised, 1983, page 55
The Burlington Free Press, July 14, 2016.
NSPCB Archives, Richard Sanders Allen Collection, Paper Files, Vermont Lists & Maps, Folder 1
Connecticut River Valley Covered Bridge Society. Bulletin, Volume X, No. 4, Spring 1964, page 8