News story and related photos (both historical and recent) regarding a suspension bridge built in 1889 over the Connecticut River to connect Brattleboro, Vermont and Chesterfield, New Hampshire. This bridge was lost to a flood in 1936 and was near where the bridge connecting VT 9 and NH 9 can be located today. It appears that some large sections of the bridge remained intact after all of these years.
http://www.reformer.com/ci_21082623/from-murky-depths-damaged-bridge (http://www.reformer.com/ci_21082623/from-murky-depths-damaged-bridge)
http://www.angelfire.com/nh/newenglandscuba/suspensionbridge.html (http://www.angelfire.com/nh/newenglandscuba/suspensionbridge.html)
As many times as I've crossed both the old bridge and the current Seabees Memorial Bridge in this area, I never knew there was another bridge before 1937! Wow!
That is pretty damn cool, although very creepy.
I know, I know, super old thread. I remembered this coming up in a search once and had something good to add.
Came across this video of a WGBY (Springfield, Mass., PBS station) documentary that has a lot about the bridges along the Connecticut River:
The Great Flood of 1936 (http://video.wgby.org/video/2365024187/)
Many of the Connecticut River bridges in Massachusetts date to the 1930s and now I know why. There's quite a narrative of bridge after bridge failing spectacularly, at least one wooden one in the Montague area breaking free and acting as a floating battering ram against downstream bridges.
Must have been a hell of a time getting across while this damage was dealt with.