Emily's Bridge (Gold Brook Covered Bridge)

Author's Comments

The bridge is small. That is the first thing to know. It does not announce itself the way the more famous Vermont covered bridges do, and the road that leads to it feels like a road you have stumbled onto rather than chosen. Gold Brook runs underneath, narrow and dark, and the wood of the bridge has gone the color of old tea after a hundred and eighty winters. I came here first in October, late, when the leaves were mostly down and the air had that wet-iron smell that means the season is turning. Blue hour is the time. The interior of the bridge goes nearly black while the sky outside still holds some color, and if you set up at the mouth and let the structure frame the brook beyond, the contrast does most of the work for you. The Howe trusses cross-hatch the light in a way that rewards a closer look - the diagonal timbers, the iron rods, the joinery that has held through more weather than any of us will see. The haunted reputation is part of why people come, and I will not pretend it does not affect the photographs. There is a quality to this bridge in low light that feels watched. Whether that is suggestion or something older, I cannot say. What I can say is that on a foggy morning in summer, with the brook running loud and the timbers damp and the road empty in both directions, you will not need to manufacture atmosphere. It is already there, waiting. Park at the pulloff. Walk in slowly. Give the place a few minutes before you raise the camera.

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