details

Documenting North America's past & present covered bridges

Home

Comstock, Middlesex 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: CT/07-04-01#2
County: Middlesex County
Township: East Hampton
Town/Village:
Bridge Name: Comstock
Crosses: Salmon River
Truss type: Howe
Spans: 1
Length: 92'
Roadway Width:
Built: 2011
Builder:
When Lost: standing
Cause:
Latitude: N41 33.198
Longitude: W072 26.910
See a map of the area
Topographic map of the area
Directions: 2.0 miles west of jct CT149 on CT16 and 400' right on Comstock Bridge Rd.

Comstock Bridge being reconstructed, East Hampton, Middlesex County, CT Built 2011
Bill Caswell Photo, October 8, 2011

Comstock Bridge, East Hampton, Middlesex County, CT Built 2011
Bill Caswell Photo, January 22, 2012

Comstock Bridge being reconstructed, East Hampton-Colchester, Middlesex County, CT Built 1873
Bill Caswell Photo, September 25, 2011

Comments:
The first bridge at this location was built in 1791. The crossing was once part of the Colchester and Chatham Turnpike chartered by the Connecticut Legislature in October 1808. In 1873, the Town of Colchester voted that the bridge over Salmon River be rebuilt and the Town of Chatham approved the project. The Howe truss covered bridge was built at a cost of $3,958.59. In 1915 a bill was introduced in to the state legislature to transfer maintenance of the bridge from the towns of Colchester and Chatham (as East Hampton was known at the time) to Middlesex and New London Counties since the road was becoming a state trunk line. Ownership remained with the towns until the bridge was bypassed in the 1930s. In 1937-38 this bridge was rebuilt by the Civilian Conservation Corps using weathered boards from old barns. The wooden gates were added at this time. The old structure was dismantled and a new one was built in 2011 using some of the timbers from the previous covered bridge. The site is part of a state picnic area. Although some sources list the bridge as in East Hampton and Colchester, the town line is east of the river at this point making the bridge entirely in East Hampton.

Sources:
Caswell, William S. Jr.. Images of America - Connecticut & Rhode Island Covered Bridges, 2011, Pages 11, 63-65
National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges. World Guide to Covered Bridges, 2021, page 5

The images in this collection may be protected under copyright law and may only be used for educational, teaching, and research purposes.
If the intended use is beyond these purposes, it is the responsibility of the user to obtain the appropriate permissions from the owner stated in the image's credits.