Weekend storm claims another historic covered ‘kissing bridge’ in New Brunswick
HOYT, N.B. — New Brunswick’s tourist-friendly stock of picturesque covered bridges continues to quickly decline, with the province acknowledging it cannot save an 87-year-old bridge ravaged over the weekend by ice and flood waters.
“The Bell Bridge is not salvageable. It took a significant amount of water and ice. A lot of the boards were removed with the water,” Transportation Minister Bill Fraser said Monday as he assessed the damage in Hoyt, roughly halfway between Fredericton and Saint John.
New Brunswick reportedly had about 340 covered bridges in the early 1940s, but now has just 59. They remain a major part of tourism marketing for the province — which calls them “kissing bridges” and offers a map of them.
Just last week, a Sussex-area bridge was damaged by a motor vehicle accident.