The Creamery Covered Bridge: What You Need to Know Before Visiting
Quick Overview of the Creamery Covered Bridge:
Location: Brattleboro, Vermont
How to find it: From downtown Brattleboro, head west on Route 9. Make a left at Guilford Road and the bridge will be on your immediate right.
When it was built: 1879
What it’s known for: It’s named after the old Brattleboro Creamery that was a short distance from it.
Who/what can travel it: Today the bridge is closed to traffic but pedestrians can walk it.
Not far from downtown Brattleboro Vermont lies the Creamery Covered Bridge – a beautiful structure that harkens back to a time gone by.
More than a hundred years ago Brattleboro was home to many covered bridges, but today, the Creamery Covered Bridge is the only one left standing.
At 80 feet long and 19 feet wide, this lattice, truss-style covered bridge spans over Whetstone Brook, connecting the towns of Brattleboro and Dummerston. Red in color, the Creamery Bridge is one of the few painted covered bridges in the country.
Built in 1879, the Creamery Covered Bridge cost $1,037.80 to build and replace a bridge that was destroyed by a flood the previous November. In 1920, a covered sidewalk was added to the bridge, and the wood shingle roof was replaced with slate. The bridge was closed to traffic in 2010.
The name “creamery” in the title derives from the old Brattleboro Creamery that lay not far from it. The bridge served as an important transportation route back in the day to allow farmers to bring their milk to the creamery so it could be processed into butter or cheese.
Spruce lumber was used in the construction of the Creamery Covered Bridge. Interestingly, it was built in the same year as the Elliot Street Bridge, an iron structure, which also crosses the Whetstone Brook. While the Creamery Covered Bridge still stands today, the Elliot Street Bridge was replaced in 1948, suggesting that perhaps wood is a more durable material than iron in bridge building.
Today, while the Creamery Covered Bridge no longer serves its original purpose, it’s considered a historic landmark in the Brattleboro area and continues to be a popular destination for tourists and photographers.
See related: The Taftsville Covered Bridge: What You Need to Know Before Visiting
About Kerry Flatley
Kerry Flatley has lived in New England for the past 26 years. She has roots in Maine & Massachusetts, family in New Hampshire, and grew up close to the Connecticut border. She loves all that this region has to offer – the ocean, mountains, islands, history, villages, and cities. When she’s not writing about New England, she’s relaxing at home in the Boston suburbs with her two teenage daughters and husband.