Bridging History

We’ll start with perhaps the most famous, the West Cornwall Covered Bridge, spanning the Housatonic River on Route 128 from West Cornwall to Sharon. The bridge was designed by Ithiel Town and has been in continuous service since 1864 despite the occasional fire and flood. Today, its red-painted good looks make it one of Connecticut’s picture postcard sites. There are shops and restaurants to explore on the West Cornwall side as well.

One of Connecticut’s great bridges, Bulkeley Bridge is largely unrecognized because it is so hard to see from most vantage points. The bridge spans the Connecticut River between Hartford and East Hartford, and traffic from Routes 6, 44 and I-84 run across it. But if you go down below by the side of the river, you’ll find the last monumental stone bridge ever to be built (1903-08). With its nine arches and 100,000 cubic yards of pink and gray granite, it is also one of the most spectacular.

Have you ever seen a swing bridge? The East Haddam Bridge over the Connecticut River in the gorgeous mid-river valley was built in 1913 in three spans, one of which can swing out to accommodate river traffic.

Connecticut bridges feature all sorts of ornamentation, but nothing else is quite like The Frog Bridge in Willimantic. Also known as the Thread City Crossing, the bridge spans the Willimantic River and carries traffic along Routes 66 and 32. But it’s the giant frogs sitting atop giant spools of thread that will stop you dead in your tracks. The frogs are a nod to the area’s legendary “Battle of the Frogs” from 1754, the thread from the proud local heritage of textiles.

The Mystic River Bascule Bridge is one of Connecticut’s most famous and most observed, largely because it opens wide for boat traffic about 2,200 times a year and is located near the heart of one of the state’s most active tourist areas. Many visitors have grabbed an ice cream from a Main Street shop and gone up to wait for the drawbridge to open and let the traffic (mostly sailboats) through.

Finally, it is one of Connecticut’s great pleasures to travel along the Merritt Parkway in the southwestern region of the state and observe the bridges along the way. The parkway (aka Route 15) was built in the 1930s and was meant to be a beautiful, natural retreat away from the heavy traffic of U.S. Route 1. The bridges were meant to follow suit, and with their imaginative designs, symbols and materials, they do. Drive up early some Sunday morning and you’ll think you’ve retreated back to an earlier day.