National Register Listing

Cedar Swamp Covered Bridge

W of West Salisbury over Otter Creek, West Salisbury, VT

The Cedar Swamp-covered bridge is the only covered wood bridge remaining in the towns of Salisbury and Cornwall. The bridge is one of three in Vermont which straddle town boundaries along the channels of streams. (In such cases both towns share the ownership and maintenance of the bridge.) Until 1969 when a central supporting pier was built, the Cedar Swamp bridge had one of the longest wood clear spans in Vermont.

The covered bridges of Vermont are among its most cherished and symbolic historic resources. About one hundred bridges still stand in the state, the greatest concentration by area of covered bridges in the country.1 Many of these bridges are integral parts of unique architectural environments whose physical setting and cultural context have been little altered until recently. However, extensive highway construction programs are now drastically changing the historic environment of the state. The Vermont Division of Historic Sites wishes to extend the recognition and protection of the National Register to the majority of the surviving covered bridges, including the Cedar Swamp bridge.

Local significance of the structure:
Engineering; Transportation

Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.