"Tri-Cities of Albany, Troy, Schenectady"

What fond memories you bring back. When I was in high school I would sit with my books and papers in the evening, with my radio tuned to WPTR, listening to Casual Classics.

According to the evening news Vermont is in the midst of a major disastor. There is major flooding in every part of the state and every major road has some damage.

Some bridges including some old covered bridges have been swept away.

The video of the fast flowing flood waters is horrifying.

Dot--hi. I too am saddend by the loss of old structures--as well as by the loss of any lives and property.

But--on th news last night at least one of the destroyed "old" bridges they showed they also said had been reconstructed in the 1980s.

So IMO it was a little misleading to call it an "old covered bridge" when it was a reconstruction of one.

Maybe the others were a similar situation?

In any event--if they could reconstruct an "old" bridge once--they can probably do it again.

In this case I am now a bit leery of some of the "info" that is coming out of Vermont--at least when it comes to "old" structures....

Aug 30, 2011 -- 9:19AM, Wanderingal wrote:

Dot--hi. I too am saddend by the loss of old structures--as well as by the loss of any lives and property.

But--on th news last night at least one of the destroyed "old" bridges they showed they also said had been reconstructed in the 1980s.

So IMO it was a little misleading to call it an "old covered bridge" when it was a reconstruction of one.

Maybe the others were a similar situation?

In any event--if they could reconstruct an "old" bridge once--they can probably do it again.

In this case I am now a bit leery of some of the "info" that is coming out of Vermont--at least when it comes to "old" structures....

 

Unfortunately, time and weather are enemies of every historic structure.  I remember when I was in Florence- the famous bronze doors on the Baptistry are today not the original bronze doors, which were removed for preservation. The doors on the building were replicas.  I would assume that to any except the most trained eye (not mine, for sure), one could not tell the difference.

I guess one should ask in these cases, what is the purpose of preserving these things.  In cases like the bronze doors, they are art, but also a window into a historical era; so, you preserve the art, and still give people the window.

I don't know that covered bridges are art, or engineering marvels- but they do give people that window into history.  And they are tourist draws.  So, if they get deatroyed, you replace them on that basis as best you can.  No wooden structure is going to last forever.

I'm planning a trip to Vermont in October; I don't know what I'll find, but I'm still going. The best thing for these areas (where tourism is such a major part of the economy) is to continue to patronize them.  I was in New Orleans after Katrina as the French Quarter was trying to get back on its feet, and I was happy to go there and spend a few dollars.

Don't get me  wrong--I'm all in favor of historic reconstructions etc.

I was objecting more to the misleading "info" we were being given.

Templar--the pictures from Vermont this morning are far from pretty. I think it's admirable that you want to go there and patronize their businesses to help them recover.