Bulls Bridge
National Register Of Historic Places · Kent, Connecticut
The other one. Connecticut has exactly two covered bridges still carrying road traffic, and where West Cornwall is the photogenic red one everybody knows, Bulls Bridge is the working, weathered, slightly grim one in a gorge - and it is the more dramatic of the pair. The bridge dates to 1842 and crosses the Housatonic where the river drops through a narrow rock channel below a hydroelectric dam, so instead of a placid stream you get water hammering through a chasm a few feet under the deck. George Washington crossed a bridge at this site in 1781 and his horse reportedly went into the river, which is the sort of thing that gets a plaque. The Appalachian Trail runs right past, there are gorge trails on both banks, and unlike West Cornwall there is almost never a crowd. The one thing to understand before coming: the water here is controlled by the dam and rises suddenly without warning, on clear days as much as wet ones. People have died in this gorge. Look at it from the bank and do not go down into it.
Bulls Bridge Road, Kent, Kent, Connecticut, 06757, United States
Open at all times - it is a public road bridge and there is nothing to close. Free. Parking is in small free lots on both sides and fills on autumn weekends. The gorge trails and the Appalachian Trail access are open year round. WATER LEVELS ARE CONTROLLED BY A HYDROELECTRIC DAM UPSTREAM and can rise without warning at any hour.