The Pulp Mill Covered Bridge, also called the Paper Mill Covered Bridge, is a wooden covered bridge

Covered bridge

A covered bridge is a bridge with enclosed sides and a roof, often accommodating only a single lane of traffic. Most covered bridges are wooden; some newer ones are concrete or metal with glass sides...

 that crosses Otter Creek between Middlebury, Vermont and Weybridge, Vermont

Weybridge, Vermont

Weybridge is a town in Addison County, Vermont, United States. The population was 824 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 17.6 square miles , of which 17.0 square miles is land and 0.6 square mile is...

 on Seymour Street. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 in 1974.

The bridge is of Burr arch design. Around 1860, the original Burr arches were removed, and laminated ones added to King post

King post

A king post is a central vertical supporting post used in architectural, bridge, or aircraft design applications.-Architecture:...

 trusses, changing the bridge type to a King post with Burr arch design. This bridge has many distinctions. It is one of only seven double-barreled (two lane) covered bridges in the country, one of only two in the State of Vermont (the Museum Covered Bridge

Museum Covered Bridge

Built in 1845, the Museum Covered Bridge originally spanned the Lamoille River in Cambridge, Vermont. The trusses for the double bridge were assembled in a field next to the chosen site...

being the other, and the only still carrying regular traffic. It is also the oldest covered bridge in Vermont, and one of the oldest in the country.

Recent history

The bridge was originally built as a single span, but inherit design problems, and the heavy use has driven almost constant improvements. Amongst those improvements was the addition of two piers in the creek effectively dividing the bridge into 3 spans. A non-structural improvement was the addition of a walkway on the outside of the bridge by the Town of Weybridge. Several other rounds of repairs have been made and chronicled extensively at the Vermont Bridges website (http://www.vermontbridges.com/cbarchiv.htm#item501). Recent talks of extensively rehabilitating the bridge, including correcting the original design errors, have been had with 2012 as the target year of construction with a $2.6 million price tag.