Vermont’s creepiest covered bridge has carried cars and ghost stories since 1844

Vermont’s most famous bridge isn’t what you’d expect

You drive into Stowe Hollow on a road that narrows through the trees, and then the bridge appears. Dark wood, gabled metal roof, one lane wide.

This is Emily’s Bridge, and it has been carrying traffic over Gold Brook since 1844. Most covered bridges in New England sit behind rope barriers.

This one still lets you drive right through it.

The folklore that gave it its nickname draws thousands of visitors every year, but the real history of the bridge is just as good, and the rest of Stowe keeps the surprises coming.

One of the earliest Howe truss bridges still standing

John W. Smith built this bridge in 1844, just four years after William Howe of Massachusetts patented his truss design. That design solved a problem that had plagued wooden bridges for decades.

By combining wooden beams with iron tension rods, the Howe truss kept the structure from loosening and sagging over time.

The Gold Brook Covered Bridge stretches 48.5 feet long and 17 feet wide, and it still rests on its original dry-laid stone abutments. Many of the original beams remain in place.

It earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, and it is the only surviving Howe truss covered bridge on a public highway in Vermont.

A ghost story invented at a swimming hole

Every version of the legend goes something like this: a young woman named Emily waited at the bridge for a lover who never came, and she ended her life in despair.

The problem is that no historical record connects anyone named Emily to this bridge.

Vermont folklore authority Joseph Citro traced the story to the 1970s, when a local woman named Nancy Wolfe Stead made it up to entertain teenagers near a swimming hole. The tale spread fast and stuck.

It drew so many nighttime visitors that the Town of Stowe passed an ordinance limiting after-dark access.

Walk through the dark interior and see Gold Brook below

The bridge sits just a short drive from downtown Stowe, where Gold Brook Road meets Stowe Hollow Road. Step inside and your eyes adjust to the dim, weathered interior where the exposed Howe truss framework runs overhead.

The Stowe Historical Society put up an informational sign in 2015 covering both the bridge’s engineering and the Emily legend. You can scramble down the embankment to see Gold Brook running beneath.

That brook got its name around 1849, when a Stowe man named Abial Slayton came home from the California Gold Rush and found gold in the water. The whole visit takes about 10 to 15 minutes.

Two more covered bridges within a short drive

Vermont has roughly 100 covered bridges still standing, the highest concentration per square mile of any state. You can see two more right near Stowe.

The Red Covered Bridge in Morristown, built in 1896, carries Cole Hill Road across Sterling Brook and uses an unusual king post truss with a superimposed queen post system. It sits about a 10-minute drive from Stowe village.

The Brookdale Bridge, built in 1964, waits at the end of the Stowe Recreation Path where it crosses the West Branch of the Little River.

Cross the river 11 times on one paved path

The Stowe Recreation Path runs 5.3 miles from Stowe Village to a covered bridge near Topnotch Resort, and along the way it crosses the West Branch of the Little River 11 times over arched wooden bridges.

The trail is flat and paved, winding through forest, open farmland and meadows with mountain views in every direction. You can walk it, jog it, bike it, or bring the whole family.

In winter, the same path turns into a route for snowshoeing and cross-country skiing.

Vermont’s tallest waterfall is a quick hike from Route 100

Moss Glen Falls sits just a few miles north of Stowe village, inside C.C. Putnam State Forest. The water drops 85 feet, making it the tallest waterfall in Vermont.

The trail starts flat, crossing boardwalks through a beaver habitat along Moss Glen Brook, then climbs steeply for a short stretch to the viewing area. Families with children can handle it.

You go from your car to a view of the tallest cascade in the state in well under an hour.

Swim in glacier-carved pools at Bingham Falls

Bingham Falls drops 40 feet through a gorge off Route 108, near Stowe Mountain Resort. The hike in runs about half a mile each way through forest, starting from a trailhead on the east side of the road.

At the base, glaciers carved deep pools into the rock, and in summer, people swim in them. The cold water and tight stone walls make the gorge feel like a different world from the road above.

In winter, the same spot draws snowshoers and ice climbers.

Stowe Pinnacle gives you a 360-degree view of four ranges

The Stowe Pinnacle trail starts in Stowe Hollow and climbs 1,520 feet over about 3.6 miles round trip from the Upper Hollow Road trailhead.

The rocky summit opens up to 360-degree views of Mount Mansfield, Camel’s Hump, the Worcester Range and the Sterling Range. If you want a shorter route, the Pinnacle Meadows parking area cuts about a mile off the total.

One thing to know: the state closes the trail from mid-April to Memorial Day every year to protect the terrain from erosion during mud season.

Smugglers once hauled goods through this narrow mountain pass

Smugglers’ Notch cuts between Mount Mansfield and Spruce Peak, and the name is not decorative.

After President Thomas Jefferson signed the Embargo Act of 1807 and banned trade with Canada, northern Vermonters kept doing business with Montreal by hauling goods through this rugged pass.

Today the road through the Notch is Vermont’s first officially designated scenic highway. Cliffs rise nearly 1,000 feet on each side, and in places the road narrows to a single lane.

It only opens to passenger vehicles from about mid-May to mid-October because winter makes it impossible to plow.

Ride a gondola up Vermont’s highest peak

Mount Mansfield stands 4,393 feet tall, the highest point in Vermont, and it towers right over Stowe.

From the east, the long summit ridge looks like a human face lying on its back, with features locals named the Chin, Nose, Forehead and Adam’s Apple.

The Stowe Gondola SkyRide carries you near the top for sweeping views of the Green Mountains. If you prefer to drive, the Auto Toll Road dates to 1870, built originally for horse-drawn carriages.

Up top, about 200 acres of rare alpine tundra cover the ridge, one of only three such areas in the state.

Fall turns Emily’s Bridge into a photographer’s frame

Peak foliage hits Stowe in late September through early October, and the whole valley shifts into red, orange, gold and green as maples, birches and evergreens compete for your attention.

Route 100, running right through town, ranks among Vermont’s top autumn drives.

Emily’s Bridge becomes one of the most photographed spots in the state, its dark weathered wood framed by brilliant leaves on every side.

The Smugglers’ Notch scenic drive and the Stowe Recreation Path give you two more ways to take in the color on foot or behind the wheel.

Explore Stowe Village in Vermont’s Green Mountains

You can reach Stowe in about 45 minutes from Burlington, and once you arrive, the walkable downtown village gives you a white-steepled community church, local shops and galleries along Main Street.

This is a four-season town at the base of Mount Mansfield, with skiing in winter, hiking in summer and leaf-peeping every fall.

Between the Gondola SkyRide, Smugglers’ Notch, waterfalls and a network of trails, Stowe packs far more into a visit than most people expect.

Start at the covered bridges and work your way up from there.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

Read more from this brand:

• The drive connecting Tennessee and North Carolina took $100M and a mile of elevation to build
• You can stand in Minnesota and watch 120 feet of water crash into Canada at this border park
• Indiana’s ancient state park has canyons deep enough to swallow the afternoon light