Making Connections

If you’re a fan of covered bridges, you’re in luck. In late July and early August, you can join like-minded pontists in New Brunswick for Love Your Covered Bridges Days. The annual celebrations feature live music, picnics and storytelling events held inside or near covered bridges in a variety of communities. They’re key in raising awareness about these endangered structures, too.

Also called “kissing bridges” because their enclosed space provides couples with a private place to smooch, Canadian covered bridges were mainly built in 19th-century New Brunswick and Quebec. The structures — traditionally made of timbers and covered with a roof and wood siding to protect the decking from weather damage — are considered by fans to be an essential tie to an area’s unique heritage and beauty.

When they eventually need to be replaced or the roads are updated, however, the structures are often swapped out for more prosaic non-covered concrete and steel versions. Today, out of an estimated high of about 1,400, just 140 remain: 81 in Quebec, 57 in New Brunswick, and one each in Ontario and British Columbia, says Ray Boucher, president of the Covered Bridges Conservation Association of New Brunswick.

Covered-bridge enthusiasts are starting to see more success in saving these local icons, through rallies, petitions, letter-writing campaigns and social media. In 2022, Quebec’s Red Bridge in Mansfield-et-Pontefract (built in 1898 and, at 152 metres, the second longest in the world) was carefully restored and reopened. The 1935-era Vaughan Creek bridge in St. Martins, N.B., meanwhile, was replaced in an authentic timbered style rather than the proposed steel.

The covered-bridge appeal is enduring. “Many visitors come from places where covered bridges do not exist, so it is something new to see. Others see them as romantic structures enhancing the scenic view,” says Boucher. “Enthusiasts will see a covered bridge for what it is — a wonder.”

To find out more about Love Your Covered Bridges Days, go to ahnb-apnb.ca/covered-bridges.