09/10/2026
🌉 In Brookfield, Vermont there is a bridge that does not sit above the water. It floats on it. Sunset Lake is about 78 feet deep in the middle with a mud bottom that will not hold a pier, so in 1820 the town gave up on building a proper bridge and floated one instead.
The first version was tarred barrels lashed together with planks laid across. Farmers needed to get to the other side and the lake froze solid enough to cross in winter but was useless the rest of the year. The barrel bridge worked. It has been rebuilt at least eight times since, most recently in 2015 with a design using foam filled pontoons, and it is the last floating bridge left in New England.
Driving across it is the part people remember. The deck sits within a few inches of the surface, so when a car rolls on, the bridge sinks slightly and water comes up over the planks and runs across your tires. You are driving through the lake, not over it. There is a posted weight limit and a posted speed of about five miles an hour, and both exist for good reasons.
The 2015 rebuild raised it enough that it rides a little drier now, which some people in town considered an improvement and others considered a loss. 🚗
Have you driven the Brookfield floating bridge, and did water come up over the deck when you did?
