Eastern Railroad Discussion > Lamoille Valley RR Fisher Bridge Still Standing?

Fisher Bridge west of Wolcott, VT.

Constructed in 1908; crosses the Lamoille River; 102 feet, 7-inches long; concrete abutments with center support piling; Town truss design with steel I-Beam span between trusses; unpainted board side with composition roofing. Fisher Bridge, a railroad covered bridge, is undoubtedly the most significant of the Lamoille County bridges . It is one of the very few railroad covered bridges remaining in the United States. The bridge served the St. Johnsbury and Lamoille County Railroad (now Lamoille Valley Railroad), a 96-mile single track line that winds through the scenic Lamoille River Valley between St. Johnsbury on the east and Swanton on the west.

Engineering drawings of the bridge in the railroad’s files carry the designation, Chub Bridge, a name derived from a family once living in the area. The now better-established name, Fisher Bridge, is derived from Christopher Fisher, whose farm bordered the tracks and river crossing at the time the bridge was built. The bridge design used is basically a Town lattice truss, an all-timber design developed especially for railroad use by Ithiel Town in the Early 1800’s but later used widely for highway bridges as well. These had a single truss on each side but Fisher Bridge and many other railroad bridges were built with double sets of trusses to give the needed additional strength. Covered bridge expert Richard Sanders Allen reports that the Fisher Bridge uses a so-called Town-Pratt truss, a modification of the original Town Truss developed by Willis Pratt. The lower cost of the all-timber bridge compared to that for an iron or combination wood-iron bridge such as the Howe truss has been cited as the reason why the Boston and Maine Railroad, which was then operation the St. J, and L.C., probably used the Town truss design. The trusses and other main timbers are of yellow or "hard" pine and are connected with oak pins or treenails (pronounced "trunnels").

The cupola incidentally is another of Fisher Bridge’s distinguishing features, being the only existing bridge with this design characteristic. The cupola originally provided an escape for the smoke and sparks from the steam locomotives but with the "iron horses" now gone it simply provides additional access for the birds whose nests are built in various nooks and crannies in the wooden truss. Interestingly, the original engineering drawings of this bridge do not include the cupola but show only a plain gabled roof. The St. J. and L.C.’s civil engineer had suggested that the nearly full-length cupola was an "afterthought" as the bridge was going up.

In recent years Fisher Bridge was almost lost but through a combination of public and private effort has been preserved. In 1966 the then owner of the St. J. and L.C. had filed a petition for abandonment of the line with the Interstate Commerce Commission. A decision was never made because a new owner and his management took over and proceeded to make a number of physical improvements as part of a program to put the line on a sound operating basis.

One need was that of stronger bridges to carry the heavier rolling stock which the line planned to use or haul. Originally slated for replacement were the three covered bridges in Lamoille County (another covered bridge in Swanton remains though it is bypassed by all regular rail traffic). Two of these - one on the west side of Wolcott, the other at Cambridge Junction - have in fact passed into oblivion. But the third, Fisher Bridge, still stands because of arrangements worked out with the railroad in 1968 by the Lamoille County Development Council (now the Lamoille County Planning Commission) and the Vermont Board of Historic Sites with help from other state agencies and the governor himself, Philip H. Hoff.

The railroad agreed to save Fisher Bridge by incorporating the needed steel structure inside of it - provided someone else pay the upwards of $14,000 in extra costs for doing the work in this fashion. The state put up $9,000 and the Development Council raised the balance in private donations. The preservation work involved the installation of two steel spans with the center ends resting on new piles driven into the riverbed. The covered bridge thus no longer has any load-bearing function (other than holding itself up) but has been preserved on its original site.



Info from;

http://www.stowesmugglers.com/tour_3.htm

Is Fisher Bridge still standing on this northern Vermont dormant shortline?

Photo shows LVRC 7803 approaching the only operational railroad covered bridge in the USA back on April 19, 1980.

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The entire LV is now out of service. I rode the Morrisville - St. Johnsbury segment in 1986. Even then, the railroad west of Morrisville was out of service and there was scarcely any traffic on the east end. In fact, the major shipper was a paper mill in New Hampshire, on the former MEC Mountain Division between St. Johnsbury and Whitefield that was being leased by LV and operated as "Twin Mountain Railroad". The trip I rode operated from Morrisville to Whitefield.

I understand the entire line will become a hiking/biking/snowmobile trail. I would presume the Fisher Bridge will be preserved, along with the other (bypassed) bridge in Swanton.

The state of Vermont paid to purchase and rehab the LV ROW in the early 1980s on the promise of traffic from a chicken processor and a talc mine -- both of which ended up shipping by truck instead of rail. On the 1986 trip, the GM of the LV said, "We've got almost no traffic left". Headquarters of the railroad were then in Morrisville, VT.

The Fisher Bridge is a state historical site - still standing.

I understand vandals torched the Swanton bridge.

grest historical information; the memories are still fresh

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Yes, the bridge is still there, but the anti-rail lobby looks like it will get its wish and scrap the line for a trail.

When Howard Dean was governor, the line was protected from attack by trail advocates as the governor pursued a pro-rail agenda.

With Dean out of office, the current administration has been un-doing most of the progressive transportation initiatives in VT.

Caving in to the rail-scrapping trailies is just one of many backwards steps the new honcho has made.

Rob