On July 7, 2002, Peter and I kayaked the Merrimack River for the first time. This bridge is about 8 miles from my house and I never knew it was here. There's a good reason for that...it's been closed since 1965. Before that, it linked the town of Boscawen on the west side of the river to Canterbury on the east side. As of July 12, 2008, it still stands, although in deplorable condition. Curiously, the deck condition is much, much worse on the Canterbury side than the Boscawen side. I suspect that I-93 had something to do with this. Assuming the interstate arrived before the bridge closed, then Boscawen would have needed the bridge to provide fairly quick access to the highway. It looks like they replaced the decking on their half, then probably watched in horror as Canterbury decided not to do the same. With their deck falling apart, the State probably had no choice but to shut the entire bridge down.

The above is just a theory based on years of whimsy and too few facts about this splendid bit of NH history. The bridge is a 1907 Parker truss. It replaced a 52-year old covered bridge. (These are actual facts.) I would love to find pictures of the crossings at this point throughout the years.

This bridge is marked 001 because it was the spark that initiated the "Bridge Project" -- my personal attempt to do for steel truss bridges what has been done for the remaining covered bridges -- showcase their beauty and maybe even save a few for pedestrian usage.