Covered Bridge

If you're ever wondering if I ever get out of the house, I do. In fact, now that I have my camera, I drive around looking for things to photograph. Today I drove by the covered bridge and thought it looked especially nice in the snow.








As I took these snowmobiles buzzed in the distance like some hibernal nest of insects.



The original bridge lasted from 1830ish until 1990, when a particularly bad spring flood floated it away. Now that would have been something to photograph. This new one is a replica. I wrote this in my journal on September 21, 2007:

"While this version [of the bridge] is only 17 years old, it is a close replica of the one that stood for over 150 years. The stone masonry below is original, save the top three feet. It must have been utterly unspeakable when it collapsed in 1990--imagine 130 feet of 150-year-old wood splintering and collapsing downstream. What I find even more remarkable is that this used to be the main road between [the two towns], once upon a time. Now it isn't anything-- a fancy covered bridge used primarily by ATVs and snowmobiles, since the road itself doesn't go anywhere but to the trails. Now the major crossing is several miles to the west, making this bridge nothing more than a weathered artifact of a landmark. And I don't know how I feel about rebuilding collapsed/destroyed structures--there's something relatively lame about that. Did they use any wood from the bridge that collapsed? That, at least, wouldn't seem as pathetic. Some things were meant to pass away, like the Hesper and the Luther Little, while others, like old barns and mills, finally succumb to the fate of time. This bridge is gorgeous-- don't get me wrong-- and I'm glad when they rebuilt it they did so according to (most of) the original specs, but still-- I don't know how I feel about it. Our lives are so damn artificial and we have such a hard time distinguishing between "real" and "replica"-- they had made the boards for the new bridge our of that weather-proof plastic fake wood crap, how many people would notice or care?

"And how many people out there are as seriously in love with the the "old" things as me-- the old, the lost, the abandoned, the forgotten? On one of my walks recently I wandered down a rarely-used ATV trail and in a field I saw a derelict car with its hood up (a Caddy, I think) and an RV sitting amongst the weeds. The side window of the RV was broken and a tattered curtain hung in the hole. I was afraid someone-- animal or human-- was inside, so at first I didn't want to investigate, but my curiosity got the best of me and I tromped through the tall grasses and the milkweeds to investigate.

"The RV had obviously been abandoned some time ago, but there were a few interesting items lying out that made me wonder if people hadn't been there fairly recently-- perhaps over the summer. A half-burnt candle sat on the table, and there was a tossed-aside blanket on the couch and another in the loft. I vaguely remember an ash tray (?) and other bits of whatever lying about. None of it looked like it was being used presently, but it was just this air of human presence that fascinated me. I found it so beautiful-- I want to go back and take pictures of it. But why does this abandoned derelict of an RV seem realer, more authentic, than this behemoth of a replica covered bridge? Why would I even think that the garbagey mess of abandonment is more beautiful than a historic landmark? Hmmm."