Woodstock Warren Through Truss Bridge - Woodstock VT - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

The U.S. 5 Ottauquechee River Bridge is located in a dense woodland section of rural southwestern Vermont. A four-span steel Warren deck truss, it is 274 feet long and was built about 1930 by the state highway department as part of massive bridge rebuilding program following the 1927 flood, one of Vermont's worst natural disasters. This curved vehicular bridge carries U.S. 5 traffic over the Ottauquechee River in Hartland in southwestern Windsor County west of Interstate 91 and the New Hampshire border. U.S. 5 was a primary north/south route before the interstate was built. The bridge is an excellent example of an early auto age highway structure that has not been altered and one which maintains its integrity of design, workmanship and setting.

The U.S. 5 bridge over the Ottauquechee River represents an important era in bridge building and in the history of Vermont. As one of 1,600 bridges built following the devastating 1927 flood, the U.S. 5 structure uses standardized design and economical construction vital to the large scale bridge building effort launched in the state after the flood. The bridge is one of only 4 Warren deck trusses built in the state between 1928 and 1930. The Warren truss was, along with the Pratt truss, the most popular bridge type in the country during the period between 1850 and 1925. Its simple form, a series of equilateral triangles where the diagonals carry both the tensile and compressive strength, is still being used in bridge construction today. An identical truss is located in Bethel over the third branch of the White River.

As part of a multiple property submission, this bridge is being nominated under the historic context "Metal Truss, Masonry, and Concrete Bridges in Vermont." The property type is metal truss bridges. This bridge clearly meets the registration requirements for this property type. It is one of the best preserved examples of the few remaining Warren deck trusses in the state and retains its original members and structural integrity.

The deck truss was popular for longer spans with certain natural elevations because it minimized building expenses by requiring lower piers and abutments than other truss types. Its design uses the now standardized riveted construction and concrete flooring as well as rolled I-beams rather than built members, which expedited the building process.

The bridge also relates well with its rural environment. Because the truss runs underneath the floor of bridge, it appears to be simply an extension of the two-lane roadway over the river. The bridge's gently curving approach and modest decorated railing retains the feel of a early 20th-century rural auto bridge. The site is also important for its educational value. Just east of the bridge on the river's north bank, are the remains of an earlier bridge abutment, which provides an interesting contrast to the modern bridge building techniques exhibited in the truss, and is testament to the flood's devastation.


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Street address: Town Hwy. 24 across the Ottauquechee R. Woodstock , VT County / Borough / Parish: Windsor Year listed: 1992 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Architecture/Engineering, Event Periods of significance: 1925-1949 Historic function: Transportation Current function: Transportation Privately owned?: no Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 1: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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