Skip to main content

Rexleigh Covered Bridge

Located just outside of picturesque Salem, New York, the Rexleigh Covered Bridge is one of four covered bridges that are still standing in Washington County, and one of thee covered bridges that cross the Batten Kill while in New York. There are more covered bridges that cross the Batten Kill in neighboring Vermont. The Rexleigh Covered Bridge is also the location for a popular swimming hole. The 107 foot long bridge was originally built by Reuben Comins and George Wadsworth in 1874 and is one of only three Howe truss bridges remaining in New York State. The bridge was supposedly prefabricated in Troy, New York and transported by rail to Rexleigh where it was reassembled in place. One unique feature of the Rexleigh Covered Bridge are the cast iron shoes, which were used to fit the bridge timbers into joints with iron rods. This feature has been incorporated into no other known covered bridge in the United States of America.

The Rexleigh Covered Bridge has had its share of events over the years. A number of flooding events almost washed the bridge downstream or caused the bridge supports to settle. By 1979, a decision to demolish and replace the bridge was made, but thanks to local support, the old covered bridge was saved. In 1984 and again in 2007, the bridge was rehabilitated. If you visit the bridge today, you will find a quiet pastoral scene. Looking at the Batten Kill from the bridge, there are remnants of what looks like an old mill upstream from the bridge as well. So there are many reasons to enjoy this quiet, red covered bridge.

Old mill?

Looking upstream at the Batten Kill.

One of the portals to the covered bridge.

Side profile of the Rexleigh Covered Bridge.

The area around the bridge is also a popular swimming hole.


Sources and Links:
New York State Covered Bridge Society - Rexleigh Covered Bridge
Town of Salem, New York - Around The Town

How to Get There:

Crossposted to http://unlockingnewyork.blogspot.com/2018/02/rexleigh-covered-bridge.html

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Memphis & Arkansas Bridge (Memphis, TN)

  Like the expansion of the railroads the previous century, the modernization of the country’s highway infrastructure in the early and mid 20th Century required the construction of new landmark bridges along the lower Mississippi River (and nation-wide for that matter) that would facilitate the expected growth in overall traffic demand in ensuing decades. While this new movement had been anticipated to some extent in the Memphis area with the design of the Harahan Bridge, neither it nor its neighbor the older Frisco Bridge were capable of accommodating the sharp rise in the popularity and demand of the automobile as a mode of cross-river transportation during the Great Depression. As was the case 30 years prior, the solution in the 1940s was to construct a new bridge in the same general location as its predecessors, only this time the bridge would be the first built exclusively for vehicle traffic. This bridge, the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge, was completed in 1949 and was the third

Old River Lock & Control Structure (Lettsworth, LA)

  The Old River Control Structure (ORCS) and its connecting satellite facilities combine to form one of the most impressive flood control complexes in North America. Located along the west bank of the Mississippi River near the confluence with the Red River and Atchafalaya River nearby, this structure system was fundamentally made possible by the Flood Control Act of 1928 that was passed by the United States Congress in the aftermath of the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927 however a second, less obvious motivation influenced the construction here. The Mississippi River’s channel has gradually elongated and meandered in the area over the centuries, creating new oxbows and sandbars that made navigation of the river challenging and time-consuming through the steamboat era of the 1800s. This treacherous area of the river known as “Turnbull’s Bend” was where the mouth of the Red River was located that the upriver end of the bend and the Atchafalaya River, then effectively an outflow

California State Route 203 the proposed Minaret Summit Highway

California State Route 203 is an approximately nine-mile State Highway located near Mammoth Lakes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Mono County.  California State Route 203 as presently configured begins at US Route 395, passes through Mammoth Lakes and terminates at the Madera County line at Minaret Summit.  What is now California State Route 203 was added to the State Highway System in 1933 as Legislative Route Number 112.  The original Mammoth Lakes State Highway ended at Lake Mary near the site of Old Mammoth and was renumbered to California State Route 203 in 1964.  The modern alignment of the highway to Minaret Summit was adopted during 1967.   The corridor of Minaret Summit and Mammoth Pass have been subject to numerous proposed Trans-Sierra Highways.  The first corridor was proposed over Mammoth Pass following a Southern Pacific Railroad survey in 1901.  In 1931 a corridor between the Minarets Wilderness and High Sierra Peaks Wilderness was reserved by the Forest Service for po