Durgin Bridge
covered bridge near Tamworth, New Hampshire, USA
The Durgin Bridge is a covered bridge carrying Durgin Bridge Road over the Cold River in eastern Sandwich, New Hampshire. Built in 1869, it is a rare surviving example of a Paddleford truss bridge, and one of the few surviving 19th-century covered bridges in New Hampshire. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
Description and history
The Durgin Bridge is located in an isolated rural area of eastern Sandwich. It spans the Cold River between road junctions with Foss Flats Road and Fellows Hill Road on the south side of the river, and Durgin Bridge Road, Bridge View Road, and River Road on the north side. It is a single-span structure with a total length of 110 feet (34 m) and a width of 19 feet (5.8 m). The span over the river is 96 feet (29 m) and the roadway width is now 14 feet (4.3 m), having been reduced from 16 feet by the addition of strengthening laminated arches in 1966. The bridge rests on concrete-faced stone abutments and is covered by a metal gabled roof.
The bridge was built in 1869 at one of two major crossing points of the Cold River (the other at Whiteface village to the northwest). This one was located not far from the mill of James Durgin, and eventually came to be known by his name.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Durgin Bridge” as covered bridge near Tamworth, New Hampshire, USA. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as covered bridge near Tamworth, New Hampshire, USA. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16980238. Authority coordinates are 43.856, -71.365. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1869, 1983 and 1966.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “Durgin Bridge” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.