by Ridgefielder
Manalishi wrote: ↑Fri Apr 30, 2021 8:11 am Boy, washed away? In order to wash away the bridge, that river would have to rise 20 feet higher than its level in the photo. Whatever year that was, the spring runoff must have been ferocious!An ice jam could take a bridge like that out quite easily. One of those big storms comes up the coast in late March and dumps 3-4" of rain onto the snowpack and the still-frozen river breaks up with the ice floes jamming against the piers and the abutments and forming a dam. All that needs to happen is for it to lift the (relatively light) structure off the supports and that's the end of it-- the dam busts and everything goes roaring downstream. Countless covered bridges in New England met their end that way over the years.