Covered Bridge needs help being "Saved"

[Jim_Rogers]

I got an email from a timber framing friend this morning.

He needs all the help he can get.

I plan on going to this event.

Here are the details:


If you will pardon the cliché, I would like to sell you a bridge.
The town of Newmarket, NH recently lost a covered bridge.  In the greater picture, this was the last covered bridge in Rockingham County.  Originally built in 1847, the bridge was a modified town lattice type truss.  The bridge spanned between two stone factories and was used by workers to move products between production areas.  Later in its life, a cover was added to the bridge to protect the bridge and the workers the floods that came through this area in the middle of May washed out one of the center stone supports, and the bridge was washed downstream.  Showing the strength of a timber frame truss, much of the bridge was found, and towed back up river and currently remains in the water near the Newmarket public works garage.  Approximately two 75 foot long sections of each side of the bridge survived intact.  In addition, two 30 foot long sections were also salvaged.  The town has said that it wants to use the remains of the bridge to span an area inside of a town park.  What we need from volunteers is this; In order to get the bridge back up onto dry land, the best way would be to have 60 people carry it up onto dry land.  It is fragile without the floor system, so heavy machinery would not be the best option.  The best time to do this would be on Saturday August 19th, because on that day, high tide (which we need to work with) will be at 10:53 am.  This is not a TFG sponsored event.  If you choose to help, you will be doing so at your own risk.  Please let me know if you can help.  Or, if you know of others who would like to help, please feel free to spread the word.  Once you have contacted me, I will email you more information regarding directions, a schedule for the day, a small equipment list and photographs of the bridge.  Please feel free to email any questions to me, or call. 
Thank you.
Dan Boyle
(207)-384-5652 (h)
(603) 781-9907 (w)
supperbucket@comcast.net

Feel free to contact Dan if you can go and help, and mention to him that you got the notice from me and the FF.

Thanks.

Hope to see you there......

Jim Rogers

[asy]

Jim, this sounds a noble deed.

Would you be kind enough to show some photos when you're done?

I'd LOVE to see them.

asy :D

[Raphael]

  Bad timing for me I'm afraid, to bad is wasn't this past weekend I'd have played hooky and joined the fun, SWMBO was just up there (next town north) this past weekend to visit her granddaughter.
  One of these days I'll have to get rid of this weekend job so I can make it to more of these.

[Jim_Rogers]

I have a before picture on hand, with the bridge standing.
And a now picture of the trusses in the water.....
But the gallery is still broken and can't post them....

I will have my camera with me and will take as many as I can......

Jim Rogers

[scsmith42]

Jim, wish that I was closer - cause I'd sure be there!  Good luck.

Scott

[SwampDonkey]

We don't seem to have problems with flooding of covered bridges here. Our biggest threat comes from bone headed, low life, good for nothing arsons. (did I cover it?) We've lost 3 in the last 10-12 years in my area.  I see the Stormdale bridge has been posted a detour, unsure wheather for repairs or another arson. :

[Jim_Rogers]

Saving the covered bridge event.

Well I got there early and we got setup with 8' rollers on the river bank, and set-up my windlass with the intention to pull the first truss up the bank to get it out of the river.
We fashioned long chains to the truss, while others cut the iron rods that went under the floor section from truss to truss.
Then we attached a set of block and tackle to the chains, and off to a nice clump of trees part way up the hill about 100' from the river's edge.
Then we set the windlass up just down hill from the top pull tree, and secured it to another tree on the other side of the trail.

We pulled the first section out of the river and got it up onto rollers. But using the windlass was very slow, and it jammed the line a couple of times as it still needs some improvement to make it work smoothly.

We had four men turning the handles and they just stood in place and passed the handles to each other. None of them seemed to have any pressure on the handles and it worked really slick but again very slow.

Once the bridge truss was on the hillside on rollers it was very easy to just pull the rope down hill by four or six men and it rolled right up the hill.

After the first section was out of the water, we blocked it up and removed the rollers.
Then we put some planks over the top of the truss and created a deck for the next truss to slide up on, again using the rollers.
This time we just moved it uphill by hand, some 40 or more people with 20 or more on each side just slid it up the decking on rollers with a safety chain on the upper end hooked to a tree for a brake to prevent it from sliding back down.
When the second 75' section was on top of the first we removed some of the rollers and secured it to a tree also.

Then we had lunch.

After lunch we moved two more 30' section out of the river by a similar method of blocking and rollers all by hand with a safety rope for a brake.
These shorter sections were able to be moved by 16 or 17 men.

I have some pictures and here they are;

Here is the bridge before it got washed away:



Here are the two long bridge trusses in the water:


Here is a shot of the guys moving one of the sections from the newspaper reporter:




Here is a shot of one of the smaller sections being lifted by the men:



And here is a shot of all of the sections on dry ground:





I hope to have more photos to post soon. One of the guys from the Historical commission is going to email me some he took, and I'll post them when I get them.

Jim Rogers

[asy]

Fantastic, thanks for sharing the photos.

It's fascinating to see.

I still can't quite work out why you'd want a covered bridge, but they sure are pretty.

asy :D

[Jim_Rogers]

Wooden bridges are easy to build, because we had/have a lot of wood, they last a long time if they are out of the weather. So, roofs were added to keep the rain and snow off the road deck and this helped stop or prevent the wood from rotting....

Jim Rogers

[asy]

hhehe, here I was thinking, well, if they got wet the rain would just dry out... 

I forgot about snow.  :

asy :D

[thecfarm]

Poor asy,never got to kiss her sweetheart crossing a covered bridge.That's one thing you'll have to try when you come to the states.

[asy]

Poor asy,never got to kiss her sweetheart crossing a covered bridge.That's one thing you'll have to try when you come to the states.

Now, THAT sounds like fun...    ;) 

I'll need a volunteer.

To show me where these bridges are, of course!!!

asy :D

[Jim_Rogers]

Here are some more photos:














The windlass worked great just too slow....

So, we disconnected it and then they pulled on the rope to bring the bridge up out of the river.....

Jim Rogers

PS. the big guy in the back with the dark sun glasses is me......