Hammond River No.2 (French Village)

August, 2017:  The Hammond River No. 2 covered bridge no longer exists.  

August 24th, 2017

Well, it looks like it's all done.  From a posting on the Covered Bridges New Brunswick Facebook page today (https://www.facebook.com/groups/coveredbridgenb/), a member who lives nearby went to capture the destruction on her camera.  

Here is a link to see all Tamara Langstroth Wilson's photographs: Albums re. Destruction of the French Village Covered Bridge.  

I think I would have been in tears had I been able to get there this week. 

The Hammond River No. 2 covered bridge no longer exists.  

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August 9th, 2017

A gorgeous day out, and a picnic by the river with young relations.  There seemed to be a lot of work still going on here, looking more along the line of reinforcement than destruction.  I do not know what's going on now, but will update as and when things are revealed.  Is there still hope?

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August 4th, 2017.  Today's news.  It's a bit like a death in the family:  
Covered bridge across Hammond River to be replaced with modular one.

I'll be heading down for a visit and (it would seem), some last photographs of the bridge next week.  

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July 25th, 2017.  Sad news today.  The bridge is in worse shape than first thought, and it is now closed indefinitely:  Discovery of Wood Rot Forces Closure

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Here are links to the latest CBC news updates on this bridge which was damaged by a heavy excavator that exceeded the weight restriction, and is now closed to all traffic.  The happy news is that the bridge is going to be repaired instead of replaced. (photo credits CBC)

December 9, 2016:   Provincial Dept. of Transportation and Infrastructure news release

December 9, 2016 CBC news release: Hammond River covered bridge repairs will begin in 'immediate future'

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October 21, 2016: Province uncertain over covered bridge's future as repairs continue

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October 6, 2016: Excavator crashes through historic covered bridge, remains stuck

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July 18, 2015

This is a bridge that can be seen clearly from Highway 1, and after passing it many times, I finally stopped to visit it today.   Another idyllic summer day, with anglers and people enjoying the water nearby.  

Hammond River No.3 (Smithtown)

[Update]

This is the second bridge to be damaged and closed in the province in the last 9 months by a heavy vehicle exceeding the weight restriction for the bridge.  Please follow this link to the CBC news story.  I will add further updates as they unfold.

June 20, 2017: Damaged covered bridge in Smithtown closed indefinitely

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July 18, 2015

This is a lovely bridge that we visited on a hot Saturday in July.  There seems to be a favorite swimming spot below the bridge, so I was unable to get all the good shots I'd have liked, as there were lots of children playing in the water beneath it.  Lesson learned: don't visit popular bridges on hot summer weekends if you want clear vistas to photograph and to avoid the ire of wary parents.

Milkish Inlet No.1 (Bayswater)

Today we went in search of the Milkish Inlet bridge, the last one in Kings County left for me to visit.  And what a gorgeous day out we had finding this one.  We took the Summerville-Millidgeville ferry across the Kennebecasis River to get to the Kingston Peninsula.  I prefer this one to the busier Gondola Point ferry further upstream, as it takes a bit longer and feels more like an adventure than a commute.   [Click here for up to date ferry crossing information.]  And then it is a very short drive to the bridge, 3 or 4 km.  

This is beautiful cottage country along here, perfect for slow afternoon drives, and there are also a few lighthouses to find on the way if you are an enthusiast.  I've added a picture of the rather unusual Sand Point lighthouse at the bottom of this page, for interest.  

A fairly busy bridge, there was steady traffic going across it while we were there.  It had a  number of boards missing or damaged on the south face that one would expect to have been repaired before this late date in construction/repair season. 

Inside, there were a couple of places where vertical steel reinforcement bars had been added to the structure, something I haven't seen before.

Underneath, you can see the concrete pier  in the middle supporting the two spans of the bridge.   The vast majority of New Brunswick's covered bridges are single span, though some of these have had steel beam piers added to save them from collapse, or to allow for the increased weight of modern  traffic.

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Sand Point lighthouse  

This light, high on a skeleton tower, was built in 1869, one of the inland system of lighthouses along the Saint John River.  An enlargeable map with links to all the lighthouses in the province can be found here: Lighthouses of New Brunswick.

Trout Creek No. 5 (Moores Mills)

We finally revisited the two little bridges that span Trout Creek near Poley Mountain, southeast of Sussex.  Driving up through Fundy National Park, we thought we'd try something new - taking the Shepody Road west across country following the signs to Adair's Wilderness Lodge on Creek Rd.  The roads are not paved for about 20 km of this route until a little way north on Creek Rd, but they are in good condition overall (it's been a hot, dry summer so far this year, so caution to anyone reading this at a later date when seasonal changes can vastly alter these road surfaces).   

Trout Creek is a tributary of the Kennebecasis River that eventually empties into the Saint John River.  It is shallow enough to wade in and take profile photographs of the bridge here as it meanders along.  The bridge itself is one of the smaller ones in the province, extending less than 18m in length.  Of note, there is a measuring stick in the bank below against one of the abutments, which is the first time I have ever seen one in situ under a covered bridge, presumably put there for recording water levels in spring and other high water conditions.