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Red or Sterling Brook or Chaffee, Lamoille County

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Inventory Number: VT/45-08-11
County: Lamoille County
Township: Morristown
Town/Village:
Bridge Name: Red or Sterling Brook or Chaffee
Crosses: Sterling Brook
Truss type: Unique
Spans: 1
Length: 64'
Roadway Width:
Built: 1896
Builder:
When Lost: standing
Cause:
Latitude: N44 31.115
Longitude: W072 40.665
See a map of the area
Topographic map of the area
Directions: 1.7 miles north of jct VT108 on VT100, then 1.7 miles left on Stagecoach Rd., 1.6 miles left on Sterling Valley Rd. and just right on Cole Rd.

Red or Sterling Brook or Chaffee Bridge, Morristown, Lamoille County, VT Built 1896
Philippe Bonnet Photo, October 10, 1959, NSPCB Archives

Red or Sterling Brook or Chaffee Bridge, Morristown, Lamoille County, VT Built 1896
Bill Caswell Photo, September 29, 2013

Red or Sterling Brook or Chaffee Bridge, Morristown, Lamoille County, VT Built 1896
Richard E. Roy Collection

Red or Sterling Brook or Chaffee Bridge, Morristown, Lamoille County, VT Built 1896
Bill Caswell Photo, April 25, 2009

Red or Sterling Brook or Chaffee Bridge, Morristown, Lamoille County, VT Built 1896
C. Ernest Walker Photo, NSPCB Archives

Comments:
6-panel truss. Cement floor. Originally built at a cost of $523.14. The bridge uses a unique Kingpost with a superimposed Queenpost truss. After damage from a windstorm on October 16, 1897, thirty eight iron rods were added to each truss for added support at a cost of $210.75. Per the News and Citizen (Morrisville), October 27, 1897, "The comparatively new covered bridge in the Chaffee neighborhood, on the road to Billings' mill, is badly out of gear, the work of the fierce gale of a week ago last Saturday. The Selectmen expect that Orville Reed will be able to fix it up all right." The wooden deck was replaced with a concrete roadway and two steel I-beam stringers during rehabilitation in 1971. The bridge stands on natural bedrock abutments. The red metal roof was added in 2001 or 2002. The bridge is also referred to as the Chaffee Covered Bridge for the prominent Chaffee family who lived near the bridge during its construction. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 16, 1974.

Sources:
News and Citizen (Morrisville), October 27, 1897.
National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges. World Guide to Covered Bridges, 2021, page 144