The 1994 Swamp Meadow Covered Bridge across Hemlock Brook in Providence, Rhode Island is just 36 feet long. 

New England is known for its historic covered bridges but Rhode Island is the only New England state with just one covered bridge. Rhode Island's only authentic covered bridge on a public road is a forty-foot-long replica of an early nineteenth-century wooden bridge completed in 1994 by an all-volunteer crew built with donated lumber from local forests by the Providence Water Supply.

In 1986, the town of Foster proposed the building of Swamp Meadow Bridge as a way of celebrating Rhode Island's 350th birthday. In 1992, the project was finally approved and Swamp Meadow Covered Bridge, designed by Jed Dixon, was built over an existing steel bridge. The bridge was designed after an 1820 patent by Ithiel Town, an architect from Thompson, CT. The ‘Town Truss’ design incorporated a simple, sturdy construction and the use of materials that were inexpensive and locally available. About four months after Swamp Meadow was finally finished, it was burned by vandals. The town of Foster got together and approved a replacement bridge, which is standing today.

The bridges of colonial Rhode Island were simple wooden structures that ranged from crude log bridges over small streams to the large covered bridges that were a familiar part of the New England landscape. Bridges were usually built by local carpenters and paid for local highway taxes. Since they used nearby sources of timber, wooden bridges were not expensive, but neither were they long-lasting. Often they were carried off by high water during floods or rotted away from the rain and snow. Consequently, bridges were built with roofs. The first wooden bridge at the Blackstone River crossing in Pawtucket built-in 1713 was followed by six replacement bridges, each with an average lifetime of only twenty years. Although a handful of old wooden bridges were still in service on Rhode Island roads in the early 1900s, none survived.

In Rhode Island, most were built by the railroads in Woonsocket, Providence, and other communities in the northern part of the state. located half an hour from Providence, The Swamp Meadow Bridge is Rhode Island's only remaining authentic covered bridge. A covered bridge is considered authentic not due to its age, but by its construction. An authentic bridge is constructed using trusses rather than other methods such as stringers, a popular choice for non-authentic covered bridges.

Located at:  N41 47.973    W71 43.772    -   WGCB # 39-04-F #2

Photographed in June 2022