Description: This photograph shows a two-horse team hitched to a Conestoga wagon as it approaches a covered bridge at the Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont. A layer of snow covers the ground. A man wearing a cap and a checkered jacket stands near the wagon with his back to the camera, looking ahead at the bridge entrance. A hanging sign posted to the left of the bridge reads: "Shelburne Museum." Above the bridge entrance a posted sign reads: "SPEED LIMIT. HORSES AT A WALK. MOTOR VEHICLES 10 MILES PER HOUR." A two-horse team hitched to a Conestoga wagon approaches a covered bridge at the Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont. This photograph shows a two-horse team hitched to a Conestoga wagon as it approaches a covered bridge at the Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, Vermont. A layer of snow covers the ground. A man wearing a cap and a checkered jacket stands near the wagon with his back to the camera, looking ahead at the bridge entrance. A hanging sign posted to the left of the bridge reads: "Shelburne Museum." Above the bridge entrance a posted sign reads: "SPEED LIMIT. HORSES AT A WALK. MOTOR VEHICLES 10 MILES PER HOUR." Electra Havemeyer Webb (1888-1960) was a pioneering collector of American folk art who founded Shelburne Museum in 1947. In creating and housing the museum’s collections she incorporated 18th- and 19th-century buildings from New England and New York. She had 20 historic structures relocated to museum’s grounds, including this two-lane covered bridge, which was built in 1845 to cross the Lamoille River in Cambridge, Vermont. The 168-foot bridge has an arch truss (patented in 1804 by Theodore Burr), which allowed the bridge to have a longer span. The bridge has two vehicle lanes and a footpath. In 1949 the bridge was dismantled and moved to the Shelburne Museum. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05824
Subjects: Shelburne Museum; Wagons--United States--History; Covered bridges--Vermont; Bridges--Vermont
Places: Shelburne (Vermont); Chittenden County (Vermont)