It's a cold, wet day in the middle of October, and I have made my second long venture to the Green River Bridge from Woodstock, Vermont, to visit this spot. The differences between my first visit on a bright sunny day were amazing. The scene then did not work. There was too much contrast and no good blending of the fall trees with the bridge and town, and the sky was too dull. Now, with the rain saturating the colors and the low dark clouds tempering the dynamic range, it's wonderful.

The little village presents a nice setting with the bridge and its new red front, the Green River; the working shed and its timber crib dam to the right, west of the bridge. Adding to the magic are a couple of homes to the south of the bridge along the Jacksonville Stage Road. I am standing on a bank north of the bridge containing the Green River Community Church, built in 1838 in the typical New England style. The church culminates the three pillars of the community: church, bridge and pound. Although I worked the area quite well, this image of the bridge with the gnarled old maple limb hanging down is one of my favorites.

The Green River Bridge was built in the 1870s by Marcus Worden, and it is a Town Lattice truss bridge with a span of 105 ft and a width of 15 ft. A lattice truss bridge is one that uses many small, closely spaced diagonal elements forming a lattice. The design was patented in 1820 by Ithiel Town. The bridge forms an important visual component of the small village of Green River, with its church on the North side of the bridge along with the Green River Inn. Because the bridge and town of Green River are quite remote, it does not get the heavy traffic that has stressed the other covered bridges in Vermont, keeping it a worthy place to visit.