Emily's Covered Bridge

The rain was pouring down (as it had been all day long), so here are two pictures out the car from the car window.

Emily's Stowe (a/k/a Stowe Hollow, Gold Brook)
Built by John N. Smith, c1844
Howe Truss, 50', spanning Gold Brook on Covered Bridge Road, 1.2 miles up Gold Brook Road from Route 100. The only Howe road bridge in Vermont.

There are at least three dramatic stories about how the name "Emily's Bridge" came about:

1. (Date unknown) Emily was on her way to her wedding when her horse bolted and threw her while crossing the bridge; she died of her injuries.

2. Sometime in the 1800's, Emily was jilted by her fiancé and hung herself from the rafters.

3. In 1925, homely Emily fell in love with Donald, who got her pregnant. When her father insisted that he marry her, Donald killed himself here. Following the birth of twins, Emily did the same.

Whatever the truth behind the name, there are numerous "eyewitness" accounts of continued haunting of the bridge, supposedly by Emily's ghost.

The bridge is officially named the Goldbrook bridge, the brook below being so named when Captain A. H. Slayton, who had experienced the gold rush in California found a few flakes of gold on the banks of the brook. He was convinced that there must be a rich gold vein nearby, and purchased the farm where he found the gold, intending to find it. The vein either is not there, or doesn't exist because the gentleman never found it, although he did find enough eventually to make a watch chain with the flakes that he found. All told, he found what was about $100.00 worth of gold.

The scene is a picturesque New England-covered bridge located in Stowe, Vermont, down a winding, washboard dirt road that is frequently found in our beautiful state. The brook is beautiful, and on a summer day the long undisturbed trees surrounding the bridge are a quiet reminder of the age of the beautiful bridge. There are a few houses in view, but for the most part down this old dirt road the feelings of isolation here are strong. The bridge is dark and foreboding, perhaps due to the dark walnut stain that is on the timbers in the front of the bridge.