The New York State Covered Bridge Society (NYSCBS) is hosting a meet-and-greet at Perrine’s Covered Bridge on the weekend of October 8 to 10 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. The Society will have displays, handouts and trinkets for sale or giveaway. Perrine’s Covered Bridge was originally built in 1821 and was modified and subsequently restored a number of times, but is structurally the same as when built.
Perrine’s Covered Bridge crosses the Wallkill River at Rifton in the Town of Esopus to the Town of Rosendale, just four miles north of the Village of New Paltz. In the early 19th century, it was one of three bridges within a span of ten miles across the Wallkill in the Town of New Paltz, which had an area much larger than the Town has now.
Perrine’s Bridge is a timber bridge and is one of the finest examples of a Burr trussed arch in the US. For many years there has been confusion about when the bridge was constructed. Newspapers, magazines and signs often stated conflicting dates: 1834, 1844, 1846, late 1840s, circa 1850 among other dates. Recent archival research has uncovered documents that date the original construction of Perrine’s Bridge to 1821, with its covering a year later in 1822; thus, the crossing has a 200-year history. Other dated documents reveal subsequent repairs and rebuilding that were necessary as the wooden structure aged. Major rebuilding/restoration took place in 1846 and 1968.
This Open House event is held in conjunction with I Love New York’s Path through History program. For more information about the bridge, visit Vivian Wadlin’s Fall issue of About Town at http://abouttown.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/AboutTown_Fall_2022_Perrines_Bridge.pdf.
Join the family! 
