Ranger Bridge
# Ranger Bridge

The Ranger Bridge (officially Veterans Memorial Bridge) between Wells River, Vermont and Woodsville, New Hampshire, is a three-hinged steel arch truss bridge over the Connecticut River. It was built in 1923 to replace a 1917 bridge. This is the oldest steel arch bridge over the Connecticut River.

## History

The Wells River Bridge was built in 1903 to carry rail and road traffic. In 1917, the road traffic was rerouted over a new bridge, a three-span Warren deck truss designed by John W. Storrs, just downstream, called the Ranger Bridge, for around $65,000 (US$1,480,000 with inflation). A flood undermined and destroyed this bridge in 1922.

J. R. Worcester designed the next bridge, which was built by the Boston Bridge Company, the same combination of designer and builder which made the Arch Bridge in Bellows Falls 18 years earlier. The current bridge was completed in 1923 as a three-hinged steel arch bridge. It was rehabilitated in 2001–3. This is the oldest steel arch bridge over the Connecticut River.

