Middle Bridge Woodstock
— — a wooden roof for the river to pass under.
Not only on a wall.
“A Town-lattice covered bridge across the Ottauquechee, at the foot of Woodstock village green. Built by New Hampshire bridgewright Milton S. Graton in 1969 with hand-pegged oak, replacing earlier bridges that had crossed at the same point since the early 1800s. Single lane, wooden deck, the river audible underneath. Tourists slow to walk through; locals drive across without thinking. from the studio
Middle Bridge Woodstock, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Middle Bridge crosses the Ottauquechee River at the western edge of the Woodstock village green, a few hundred feet from the central common in Woodstock, Vermont. It is one of three covered bridges in the town and the one most often photographed, in part because it sits at the natural foot of the historic village. A bridge has occupied the site since the early 1800s; the present structure dates to 1969 and carries one lane of vehicle traffic plus a sidewalk for pedestrians coming into the village.
The bridge uses a Town lattice truss — a design patented by Connecticut architect Ithiel Town in 1820 — built from overlapping oak planks pinned together with wooden treenails rather than iron bolts. Builder Milton S. Graton, of Ashland, New Hampshire, assembled the present span in 1969 from native timber and traditional joinery, working with hand tools and a team of oxen for the final raising. The bridge is roughly 139 feet long and the only Graton-built covered bridge in Woodstock proper.
The bridge is open to vehicle traffic year-round, single lane, with right-of-way determined by who arrives first. A sidewalk on the upstream side carries foot traffic into the village from River Street. Parking is easiest along the green or in the municipal lot behind the Woodstock Town Hall; from there the bridge is a two-minute walk. Best photographed in mid-October when the sugar maples on both banks turn, and again under fresh snow, when the wooden roof reads dark against the river.