County Farm Bridge | |
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| Location | Old County Farm Rd., Wilton, New Hampshire |
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| Coordinates | 42°51′25″N 71°49′3″W / 42.85694°N 71.81750°W |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1885 |
| Built by | Ward Bros. |
| Architectural style | stone arch |
| NRHP reference No. | 81000070[1] |
| Added to NRHP | May 14, 1981 |
The County Farm Bridge is a historic stone arch bridge in Wilton, New Hampshire. Built in 1885, it carries Old County Farm over Whiting Brook, just south of its northern junction with Burton Highway in a rural section of northwestern Wilton. It is an unusually late and well-preserved example of a 19th-century stone arch bridge, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.[1]
Description and history
Old County Farm Road was the main access road to the Hillsborough County Poor Farm, and is now an unmaintained class 6 road. The bridge consists of a single stone arch with a span just under 18 feet (5.5 m). It is lined with cut granite voussoirs 18 inches (46 cm) thick. The arch begins on land 7 feet (2.1 m) above the water, and the arch rises to a height of 15 feet 10 inches (4.8 m) above the typical water level. The arch is embedded in a causeway which is 430 feet (130 m) long and has a base width of 29 feet (8.8 m).[2]
The bridge was built in 1885 for the town by the Ward brothers of Lowell, Massachusetts, at a cost of $3,000. The Wards were well known for work they did on railroad bridges, which often employed stone arches. Stone for the bridge was quarried in Wilton, from a quarry that also supplied granite for public works projects in the town center. The bridge has been little altered since its construction: the arch was originally dry laid, but a number of joints in the barrel of the arch have subsequently been mortared with concrete.[2]
See also
References
- 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- 1 2 "NRHP nomination for County Farm Bridge". National Park Service. Retrieved 2014-05-13.
External links
Media related to County Farm Bridge (Wilton, New Hampshire) at Wikimedia Commons
