Albany Covered Bridge

Author's Comments

The bridge itself is the postcard, and I will not pretend otherwise. Built in 1858, restored in 1970, the Paddleford truss doing its quiet structural work above the Swift River. Most people stop, photograph the broadside from the road, and move on down the Kancamagus. I understand the impulse. But the bridge gives more if you give it more. What I keep coming back for is the relationship between the timber and the water below. The Swift River runs over smooth granite here, and in summer the pools go that particular shade of green that only clear water over pale stone produces. Drop down to the riverbed. Wade out if the water is low enough. From below, the bridge becomes something else entirely - a dark frame against sky, the underside of the trusses revealing themselves, the geometry that you cannot read from the road. Morning is the hour. The bridge sits roughly east-west and the early light rakes across the weathered siding, picking out grain and nail-head and the slow accumulation of more than a century. Fall brings the crowds and the obvious color, and it is worth the crowds. But I have made my better photographs here in late June, when the river is still high enough to hold reflections in the calm pools and the surrounding hemlocks throw the structure into useful shadow. Bring the parking pass. Bring shoes you do not mind getting wet. Spend longer than you planned.

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