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Best or Swallows, Windsor County

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

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Inventory Number: VT/45-14-10
County: Windsor County
Township: West Windsor
Town/Village:
Bridge Name: Best or Swallows
Crosses: Mill Brook
Truss type: Tied Arch
Spans: 1
Length: 37'
Roadway Width:
Built: 1889
Builder: A.W. Swallows
When Lost: standing
Cause:
Latitude: N43 27.309
Longitude: W072 30.981
See a map of the area
Topographic map of the area
Directions: 1.5 miles southeast of jct VT106 on VT44, then 230 feet right on Churchill Rd. West-southwest of Brownsville.

Best's or Swallows Bridge, West Windsor, Windsor County, VT Built 1889
Bill Caswell Photo, April 27, 1985

Best's or Swallows Bridge, West Windsor, Windsor County, VT Built 1889
Richard E. Roy Collection

Best's or Swallows Bridge, West Windsor, Windsor County, VT Built 1889
Bill Caswell Photo, March 16, 2010

Best's or Swallows Bridge, West Windsor, Windsor County, VT Built 1889
Bill Caswell Photo, April 5, 2010

Comments:
There are three remaining tied-arch bridges in Vermont: Bowers, Bests, and Lakeshore. The chords are suspended from a series of iron rods connected to the low arch. The truss is covered by a post-and-beam shed set on the bridge deck. Per The Vermont Tribune (Ludlow), June 21, 1889, "WEST WINDSOR. The town is putting up a covered bridge near A. W. Swallow's. In 1869 Swallow lived at the intersection of what is now SR44 and Churchill Road, so the bridge could have been over Mill Brook or Willow Brook. Per the Rutland Daily Herald, July 27, 1973, the bridge was being lifted by crane to allow abutments to be rebuilt before it was reset. The article described the naming of the bridge based on an early land-owner named Swallow and then later Will Best. The bridge was refurbished in 1991.

Sources:
Rutland Daily Herald, July 27, 1973.
The Vermont Tribune (Ludlow), June 21, 1889.
Allen, Richard Sanders. Rare Old Covered Bridges of Windsor County, VT, 1962
Nelson, Joseph C.. Spanning Time - Vermont's Covered Bridges, 1997, page 167
National Society For the Preservation of Covered Bridges. Covered Bridge Topics, Volume LXXXIII, No. 2, Spring 2015, pages 3-5
Conwill, Joseph D.. Images of America - Vermont Covered Bridges, 2004, page 63
National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges. World Guide to Covered Bridges, 2021, page 152