Perrine’s Covered Bridge

During a recent geocaching outing to the Poughkeepsie area, I had the chance to see Perrine’s Covered Bridge.

Perrine’s is the second-oldest covered bridge in New York, so that was kind of cool.

For those who didn’t know already, I’m a bit of a covered bridge nut. I’m a big fan of seeing new ones and photographing as many as I can. In my area, there are three historical covered bridges within 30 minutes of each other.

In New York, there are 24 historic covered bridges. These are my favorites as most have stood the test of time, though some may no longer be open to vehicle traffic. I’d love to, eventually, see all 24 of these bridges. Alas, a few are private and at least one of those appears to be near impossible to get permission to see the bridge. That’s a shame as these are magnificent structures.

Two of those said private bridges are in my county. I’m going to see what kind of research I can do to attempt to be able to eventually see these bridges, but I don’t know if it will work out well or not.

Apparently, too, there is a non-historic covered bridge in my county as well. I’ve found a little info on it, but I’m not sure if it’s on public or private property. It seems to be an “authentic” covered bridge, but just not historic.

Of the 24 historic bridges in the state, I’ve now visited nine of them. I’ve also seen three in Maryland, one in Pennsylvania, and one in Vermont. I’d like to try and see a few more in New York this summer and maybe a couple in other states, if the chance is there.

As for Perrine’s…

It’s a really beautiful bridge. The main road zips past it on one side and the other side is picturesque. There’s a trail on the opposite side of the bridge from the road which is where one of the caches is. The bridge, itself, is also a virtual geocache.

The bridge was built in about 1844 and appears to still be in good shape.

According to Wikipedia, the bridge hasn’t had vehicle traffic since 1930. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 13, 1973.

This is worth the stop if you are in the area.

And if you see covered bridges anywhere, check ’em out. They are usually quite a cool thing to look at — especially the workmanship and craft of the historical ones.

You can see the rest of my photos of Perrine’s Bridge on my Flickr site.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.