August 2007
New Brunswick Canada - Hartland Covered Bridge
We were coming at this bridge from Prince Edward Island. The Bridge sits near the U.S. - Canadian broder. It had been raining the entire day by the time we reached the Bridge. The 183 miles from Moncton to Hartland was fairly boring. The Hartland Bridge was a must-see; the world’s longest covered bridge which spans the St. John’s River at a whopping 1,282 feet. We felt the need to include this on our bridge tour page since we were relatively close. The 1,282 foot Hartland Covered Bridge is the longest covered bridge in the world. It was originally constructed by the Hartland Bridge Company, which was formed by citizens on both sides of the St. John River, and officially opened July 4, 1901. The bridge was purchased by the government of New Brunswick in 1906. Two spans of the bridge were taken out by river ice April 6, 1920, and the government made major repairs and covered the structure in 1922. The side walkway was added to the bridge in 1945 and on June 23, 1980, the Hartland Covered Bridge was declared a National Historic Site and on September 15, 1999 it was declared a Provincial Historic Site. Unfortunately it was still raining when we arrived at the bridge. We covered our bikes and found a local watering hole where we ate lunch and had a couple of beers to wait out the rain. After about an hour the rain lightened up and we went out to explore the bridge. After getting our pictures and milling around we got back on the bikes and continued towards the border.
View Larger Map
