BROOKFIELD, Vt. — A tiny Vermont town’s wooden floating bridge — believed to be the only one of its kind in the country — has been rebuilt and is reopening this weekend with fanfare including a parade with a bagpiper, high school marching band, oxen team, horses and antique cars crossing the new span Saturday.
The Brookfield bridge on Route 65 — a state highway that is unpaved through the village — has been closed for seven years after its flotation system started to fail, causing it to be partially submerged.
Residents are excited about having the one-lane bridge across Sunset Lake opened again to vehicles and pedestrians as summer approaches in the community of 1,200, where historic homes dot the landscape along the picturesque water. The bridge has now been replaced seven times.
“We’re just thrilled to see it open,” said Jane Doerfer, owner of the Green Trails Inn, across the street from the bridge, which often gets business from tourists who come to see the bridge and then decide to stay overnight.
She lost a lot business when the bridge closed but said she would rather focus on the good news that the new bridge is complete. “Let’s just concentrate on we now have a bridge where we can hear the children laughing as they jump off the bridge and things like that.”
The first floating bridge was built in 1820, by townspeople who strapped together logs on the top of the frozen lake, after a man drowned walking across the ice, said Perry Kacik, chairman of the Brookfield Floating Bridge Celebration Committee.
As the bridge was rebuilt over the past nearly two centuries, technology improved. In the previous bridge, water started to leak into the barrels beneath the decking, causing the bridge to sink slightly, Kacik said.
The new bridge is made of pontoons and is completely above water. The $2.4 million project was covered by 80 percent federal funds and 20 percent state funding.
“It’s really important here for the little town of Brookfield, one of the few communities that does not have a Main Street that’s paved,” said Orange County Sheriff Bill Bohnyak, a member of the celebration committee. “It’s still dirt and it’s going to continue that way.”