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Power House Covered Bridge

bridge in Johnson, Vermont

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ14629087
Source-derived summary

The Power House Covered Bridge, also known as the School Street Covered Bridge, is a covered bridge from 1872 that crosses the Gihon River off State Route 100C in Johnson, Vermont, US. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The bridge's name is from a now obsolete hydroelectric generating station just upstream from it. The bridge is of Queen post truss design by an unknown builder.

Description

The Power House Covered Bridge is located east of the village of Johnson, on School Street just west of Vermont Route 100C. It cross the Gihon River, a tributary of the Lamoille River in a roughly east–west orientation. It is a single-span Queen post truss structure, 63.5 feet (19.4 m) long and 19 feet (5.8 m), with a roadway width of 16 feet (4.9 m) (one lane). The bridge rests on stone abutments faced in concrete, and is covered by a gabled metal roof. The exterior is clad in vertical board siding, which extends around to the insides of the portals. On the sides, the siding does not extend all the way to the roof, leaving an open strip. The trusses include iron rods for stability, and have had metal plates added to some of the joints for increased strength.

History

The bridge was built in 1870, several decades before the eponymous power plant was built upriver.

Editorial summary

“Power House Covered Bridge” enters the record as bridge in Johnson, Vermont. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Power, House and Covered can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1872, 1974, 1870—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Power, House and Covered.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Power House Covered Bridge” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Power, House and Covered provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q14629087. Authority coordinates are 44.636, -72.671. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1872, 1974 and 1870.

Critical limits

Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. 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.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Power House Covered Bridge”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Power House Covered Bridge primary sources, Power House Covered Bridge archive and Power research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Power House Covered Bridge”?
  2. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
  3. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Power House Covered 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.