Photo Gallery by Cynthia Prairie
It was a beautiful but freezing winter day that brought together many Vermonters to celebrate the opening of the new Bartonsville Covered Bridge. First, below is Susan Hammond’s famous video of the bridge collapsing. It helped bring attention to the efforts to rebuild it. Following that is the morning events in pictures.
People begin gathering at the Bartonsville Covered Bridge on a chilly but clear Saturday morning, Jan. 26.
Banners flanked the south entrance to the bridge over the Williams River. During Tropical Storm Irene, which occurred in August of 2011, the river raged, bringing down the original 1871 bridge.
The new bridge.
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin attended the ribbon cutting.
The new sign over the new bridge.
For the formal ribbon cutting, U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, second from left, joined the governor, Rockingham officials and representatives for the bridge builders, Cold River Bridges.,
The audience was thrilled.
Susan Hammond, the Rockingham resident whose video of the bridge’s collapse was viewed worldwide, gives an emotional and upbeat speech as U.S. Rep. Peter Welch and Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin listen.
And the new Bartonsville Covered Bridge is formally opened.
About the Author: Cynthia Prairie has been a newspaper editor more than 40 years. Cynthia has worked at such publications as the Raleigh Times, the Baltimore News American, the Buffalo Courier Express, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Patuxent Publishing chain of community newspapers in Maryland, and has won numerous state awards for her reporting. As an editor, she has overseen her staffs to win many awards for indepth coverage. She and her family moved to Chester, Vermont in 2004.
