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The Cornish–Windsor Covered Bridge

History

1796 bridge

The Cornish Bridge Company was chartered November 10, 1797. On the morning of February 16 1824, the eastern part of the Cornish Bridge – on the Cornish side, opposite of Windsor – was swept away in the Connecticut River.

Controversy over tolls

In 1917, a Windsor resident, Frederick A. Fitts, filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of New Hampshire, at the November term of Sullivan County Court (located in Claremont) against the Cornish Toll Bridge Company, arguing that the tolls were illegal. Part of the public sentiment against tolls was influenced by a bridge at Ascutneyville, 10 miles north, newly re-built in 1908, made of steel and toll-free. The Ascutneyville bridge crosses the Connecticut River, connecting Claremont with Ascutney (an unincorporated part of Weathersfield). Before 1908, the Claremont Bridge Company had built and maintained a toll-bridge at Ascutneyville, Vermont, from 1839 until March 1904, when it was destroyed by freshet.

Selected personnel

Founding directors in 1796

• Nathaniel Leonard
• Jonathan H. Hubbard
• Perez Jones (1765–1837)
• Caleb Stone (1746–1820)
• Ithamer Chase (1762–1817), father of the Salmon Portland Chase, the sixth Chief Justice of the United States

Founding executives

• * William Leverett (1760–1817), treasurer

Directors in 1803

• William Leverett
• Stephan Jacob
• Ithamer Chase

Directors in 1804

• Isaac Green
• William Leverett
• John Leverett (1758–1829), brother of William Leverett, who earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1776 from Harvard; William and John's great-great-great grandfather, John Leverett, the 19th and last governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

Later directors

• Allen Wardner, director in 1885

Train bridge to the south

The four bridge piers seen in the background are those of the New England Central Railroad Connecticut River Bridge #3.

Slides

• Lattice truss and underbelly of the Cornish-Windsor Bridge
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Slides 2

• Lattice truss and underbelly of the Cornish-Windsor Bridge
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