Description:

The town of Warren is one of many in Vermont that has its own Covered Bridge, crossing the famed Mad River. There are estimated to be just over 100 covered bridges in the State, giving Vermont the highest number of covered bridges per square mile in the country.

The bridge is credited to William Bagley who lived in Warren from 1836 till 1884, and built the bridge between 1879 and 1880.  It has been in continuous use since then. Nowadays it serves primarily as a picturesque detour as the Mad River is crossed by modern bridges at each end of the town. In fact the bridge is occasionally put to other uses, having been used as the setting for a beautifully decorated wedding for an Australian couple in the fall of 2013.

The town center of Warren itself is also something of a picturesque detour as Route 100 takes through traffic on the other side of river, leaving the Main Street to be used by residents and tourists alike visiting the Warren Store, The Pitcher Inn, the Church with the white tower, the Post Office or the Town Hall.  There is even a beautiful town gazebo, within which hangs a bell of debated provenance.  All in all, a quintessential Vermont “village”. Of interest is that the town was named after Joseph Warren, who was honored by the town fathers when its charter was granted in 1789 for his service and sacrifice in the Revolutionary War.

The covered bridge itself was built just upstream from one of the many weirs that were built in the 19th century to create water channels for several water mills. The weir below the bridge is the only one still in place, having been rebuilt after a major flood in 1927.  More recently it created the flow for a small hydro-electric system.