Vermont’s oldest covered bridge has a fake ghost story and a real gold rush connection

It’s history, folklore and fall color in Stowe

Stowe, Vermont, is known for skiing, maple syrup, and leaf-peeping, but tucked a few miles south of the village, a 180-year-old covered bridge sits over a brook that once gave up real gold.

It goes by two names, carries a ghost story that turns out to be pure invention, and still works as a functioning road.

That combination of history, legend, and scenery pulls in photographers, history fans, and curious travelers all year long.

The brook beneath it has a story too, and it starts with the California Gold Rush.

Gold Brook still runs under a bridge built in 1844

The bridge carries Covered Bridge Road over Gold Brook, a small stream winding through wooded hills in the Stowe Hollow area of southeastern Stowe.

Local builder John W. Smith put it up around 1844, and a sawmill just downstream, run by a man named Daniel Dutton, likely supplied the lumber.

Smith chose the Howe truss design, a method patented only four years earlier in 1840 by William Howe of Massachusetts.

It combined wooden diagonal braces with iron vertical rods, making bridges stronger and faster to build than the all-wood designs that came before.

The only Howe truss bridge left on a Vermont public road

Vermont has about 100 covered bridges left, but Gold Brook is the only surviving 19th-century Howe truss covered bridge still sitting on a public roadway in the state.

That distinction earned it a spot on the National Register of Historic Places on Oct. 1, 1974. The bridge runs 48.5 feet long and 17 feet wide, with a roadway of 13.5 feet.

It rests on dry-laid stone abutments built without mortar, and the gabled metal roof above the wooden frame has kept weather out for more than 180 years.

Why builders put roofs on bridges in the first place

The roof and vertical board siding running up the sides were never meant for travelers crossing in the rain. They were built to protect the wooden trusses underneath.

Without a cover, the structural timbers of a bridge would rot and fail within a few years. With one, a bridge could last for generations, which is exactly what happened here.

Many of the original 1844 timbers are still inside.

A narrow strip of siding stops short of the eaves on purpose, letting air and light filter through to keep the wood from holding moisture.

Farmers, lovers and the nickname “kissing bridge”

Covered bridges picked up the nickname “kissing bridges” in the 1800s because the enclosed space gave courting couples a moment of privacy while passing through in a horse-drawn carriage.

Farmers had a more practical appreciation: the cover and enclosed sides kept livestock calm when crossing over moving water.

Open bridges rattled animals. Covered ones felt more like a barn. Gold Brook Bridge saw both uses for decades.

The small pull-off parking area on the far side gives you room to step out and look at the structure without standing in traffic.

The ghost named Emily who never actually existed

The bridge’s other well-known name is Emily’s Bridge, tied to a folk tale about a young woman jilted by her lover at the crossing. Several versions float around, with details that shift depending on who’s telling it.

But ghost researcher Joseph Citro tracked the story to its source: a local woman named Nancy Wolfe Stead admitted in the 1970s that she invented the whole thing to scare neighborhood kids.

No historical records anywhere in Vermont have ever linked anyone named Emily to the bridge. The story stuck anyway, and an information board at the bridge lays out the full tale for you to read.

Gold fever hit this Vermont brook in 1849

The brook running under the bridge was originally called Hull Brook. Then a young Stowe man named Abial Slayton headed west to join the California Gold Rush around 1849.

When he came back home, he took a closer look at the local creek and found gold. Slayton set up a sluicing operation and collected about $200 worth before the supply dried up.

The name Gold Brook replaced Hull Brook and stayed. People still come to try their hand at panning in the same stream, even knowing the odds.

Vermont leads the country in covered bridges per square mile

Vermont once had as many as 700 covered bridges. The Great Flood of 1927 took out a large share of them, and the state now has about 100 left.

Pennsylvania and Ohio have more total covered bridges, but Vermont leads the country in concentration per square mile. Montgomery, a small Vermont town, holds the record with seven covered bridges within its borders.

Nearly all of Vermont’s remaining covered bridges carry National Register listings. Gold Brook is one of the oldest still in active use.

Two more covered bridges within a short drive of Stowe

Stowe has three historic covered bridges close enough to see in a single afternoon. Gold Brook is the oldest, dating to 1844.

The Red Covered Bridge in nearby Morristown went up in 1896 and uses a king post truss with a queen post system added on top. It sits about 10 minutes from Stowe village on Sterling Valley Road over Sterling Brook.

Stringing all three together makes for a scenic driving loop through wooded backroads, and none of them charge admission.

Late September turns the bridge into a photographer’s target

Fall foliage season runs roughly from late September through mid-October in this part of Vermont, and the bridge draws serious crowds when the maples and birches turn.

The framing of the covered structure against orange and yellow canopy is one of the more photographed images in the state.

Photographers who want a different angle climb down to the brook and shoot looking up at the bridge from the water.

Weekday mornings give you the fewest people and the best light. The drive in along Gold Brook Road is worth slowing down for on its own.

Two waterfalls are within 10 minutes of the bridge

Moss Glen Falls drops 85 feet through a gorge carved by Moss Glen Brook, about 10 minutes north of the bridge off Route 100.

The hike from the parking area to the falls runs about a quarter mile, mostly flat with one short steep section at the end.

Bingham Falls sits in a different direction, along the Mountain Road toward Smugglers’ Notch, and draws its own crowd in summer. Both are free and open year-round.

Between the bridge, the brook, and two waterfalls, you can fill most of a day without spending a dollar.

Gold Brook Bridge still carries traffic after 180 years

In 1969, Stowe residents voted to give the bridge perpetual maintenance, and the town has held to that commitment ever since. The bridge isn’t a museum piece behind a fence.

Cars still cross it. That working status, combined with its age and engineering history, makes it different from preserved bridges that just sit.

Walking through it, you’re standing on the same structure John W. Smith built with lumber from Dutton’s sawmill in 1844, using a design that was brand new at the time.

The stones below it were laid without mortar and haven’t moved.

Visit Gold Brook Covered Bridge in Stowe, Vermont

Gold Brook Covered Bridge sits at the intersection of Covered Bridge Road and Gold Brook Road in Stowe Hollow, about 3.5 miles south of Stowe village via Route 100 to Gold Brook Road.

It’s free to visit and open around the clock.

A small pull-off parking area on the far side of the bridge gives you a place to park and walk back through on foot.

An information board at the site covers the bridge’s history and the Emily legend. Since the bridge still carries vehicle traffic, watch for cars when you’re walking through.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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