Hancock - Greenfield Covered Bridge , New Hampshire - Photo Friday

 This covered bridge was photographed over the Contoocook River between Greenfield and Hancock, New Hampshire.  

While we were out in the little red convertible this fall, toodling around the Monadnock Region to see the foliage colors and to visit a burial ground in Hancock, we came across this little covered bridge.  I remembered it from my childhood when we used to go camping almost every summer at the Greenfield State park.  

Every covered bridge in New Hampshire is numbered. There are officially 54 wooden covered bridges in New Hampshire, and this bridge is #8 on the state list, called the County Bridge or the Hancock-Greenfield Bridge.  It dates from 1937, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.  The original covered bridge was built in 1852, but was damaged in the 1936 floods which took out many of the bridges across New England.  Car traffic is allowed on this bridge. 

My Emerson ancestors lived in Hancock, but they never saw either covered bridge over the Contoocook River. The last Emersons in my lineage both died in Hancock in 1809, and their children all moved away. 

The Contoocook River is not very long (only 71 miles), but it has four covered bridges: The Contoocook Railroad Bridge (1849 - 1850), Rowell's Bridge in West Hopkinton (1853), this bridge above, and the New England College Bridge (1972) on the campus of New England College in Henniker for pedestrians only.  

The oldest covered bridge in New Hampshire is the Bath-Haverhill Bridge built in 1827.  It carries only foot traffic.  There were two bridges built in 1832, another one in Bath, and one in West Swanzey called the Thompson Bridge (both carry foot and car traffic).  

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To Cite/Link to this post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Hancock - Greenfield Covered Bridge , New Hampshire - Photo Friday", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 29, 2021, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2021/01/hancock-greenfield-covered-bridge-new.html: accessed [access date]).