On our trip to New Hampshire and Vermont, I noticed many times that a relatively new modern bridge stood next too and older bridge. The old bridges weren’t historical-old or particularly scenic, just your basic old steel road bridges, often painted that old-bridge light green color. The road leading to the old bridge was ripped out, and the bridge was usually blocked off in some way, with concrete stantions or something.
Why wasn’t the old bridge torn down? Doesn’t it present an “attractive nuisance”?
Or are the savvy New Englanders just banking on the antique-bridge nostaligia that brings so many tourists into the region to see the covered bridges?
I can think of just one example off the top of my head: the old two-lane General Sullivan Bridge is closed to vehiclular traffic but remains standing next to the relatively new four-lane bridge that carries the Spaulding Turnpike between Newington and Dover Point, New Hampshire. I’m not sure why they didn’t tear down the old bridge when the new one was finished. I guess it’s possible they might use the old one for vehicular traffic temporarily if they need to do repairs on the new one.
The old one isn’t completely unused now. There are no sidewalks on the new bridge, so the old one is (legally) used by pedestrians and bicyclists, and some people like to fish off it.
I think the same is true of the bridge over the Connecticut River between Brattleboro, Vt. and Keene, N.H. The old one is still there.
However, they did take down the old Ledyard Bridge between Norwich, Vt. and Hanover, NH. Then again, by the time they built the new one, three guys with sledgehammers could have taken down the old one before lunchtime. Its replacement was long overdue.
The Carlton Bridge over the Kennebeck river here in Bath still stands right next to its replacement. It’s used for railroad traffic, but not legally useable to pedestrian/automotive traffic.
If the old bridge is not in use, maybe there’s just no budget for demolition.
