Photo: Liz Fields, Smyrna Historical and Genealogical Society

The Covered Bridge Exposed, by Jeffrey Zygmont

In wintertime one hundred years ago
New Hampshire country people couldn’t go
across a covered bridge upon a sleigh
because the cover kept the snow away,
and runners under sleighs won’t glide on wood.
Thus covered bridge protection was too good
for northern farmers driving horse-drawn sleighs,
a practical concern on winter days.
So clever yankees found a remedy:
they carried snow inside resourcefully
and spread it on the dry, protected deck
so sleighs could make an unimpeded trek.
Thus bridges covered to forestall decay
endured the winter’s snowfall anyway.

Photo by Jim McCutcheon

The above poem is from the cover of the Winter 2017 / 2018 Newsletter of the National Society for the Protection of Covered Bridges.