Jay Covered Bridge

Jay Covered Bridge

This afternoon I dashed off between the rain showers to see if I could find the historic covered bridge in the small hamlet of Jay, New York. The bridge was built in 1856 and restored in 2006. As covered bridges go, it is nothing special, but for this small community it is the centerpiece of a very attractive city park. The town of Jay was established in 1798 and was named for John Jay, a governor of New York. With iron ore deposits and the raging AuSable River for water power, it seemed like a good place for the early settlers to settle down. A forge and mills were built and thrust the area into an industrial region. Today, Jay is a center for arts and crafts in the area and is within a few minutes of the wilderness that is Adirondack Park.

I guess I’m not so different from the thousands of tourists who search out the covered bridges around our country. After all, on this rainy afternoon there was another gentleman there with his camera in hand. Why are folks drawn to these relics? It is a bit of nostalgia, I guess, for an age gone by.

Groveton, New Hampshire

Covered bridges came about for two reasons. A covered bridge looks a whole lot like a barn and it was apparently easy to fool a herd of cows that was being moved from one place to another. Also, anything protected from the weather will last longer and that includes bridges. Having a bridge last for half a century was far better than rebuilding every 10 to 20 years. Many covered bridges dot the landscape of northern, harsh climate, states.

Stark New Hampshire

Swift River Bridge

Here are photos of the Jay Covered Bridge as well as a few bridges I found in New Hampshire a couple years ago.

West Ausable River approaching the Jay Covered Bridge