Dear Editor,
The Mill Street Bridge in Ludlow is to be replaced. The old bridge is a pony truss with riveted ironwork, giving it a unique appearance. Built after the Great Flood of 1927, it connects us to Vermont’s industrial heritage.
The new Mill Street Bridge will be one of the welded chord truss footbridges, which are commonplace across the nation. You can order one up and have it shipped to you. Chord truss footbridges come unpainted with a rust coat. They are inexpensive and unremarkable.
Vermont is a haven for saving our nation’s steel civil engineering heritage, especially appreciated after New Hampshire destroyed the famed Bellows Falls Arch Bridge.
If we cannot keep a reworked Mill Street Bridge in place, please consider saving the two trusses and sending them to a Vermont Agency of Transportation bridge storage depot for others to reuse. Vermont’s history matters.
Author’s note: The writer is a “pontist,” one who appreciates historic bridges, and donated one 44-foot pony truss bridge for reuse on the The Jaquith Rail Trail in Hancock, N.H.
Respectfully,
Steve Lindsey
17 Center Street
Keene, N.H.