West Montrose Covered Bridge, Covered road bridge in West Montrose, Canada.
The West Montrose Covered Bridge is a 60-metre wooden road bridge over the Grand River, painted red with vertical plank siding and covered by a grey-shingled gabled roof. Small louvered openings sit near the top of the side walls, and the structure rests on stone piers with concrete abutments. The gable end has an arched opening; inside, the roadway runs between white-painted walls.
John L. Wideman of St. Jacobs called for tenders in 1880 to span the Grand River, and the Bear Bros., John and Benjamin, built the bridge with oak and white pine for $3,197.50. It opened on 15 November 1881 and was painted the following May. Concrete replaced the wooden abutments after 1900, and since 1998 the Regional Municipality of Waterloo has owned it.
Locals driving horse-and-buggy rigs called it the "Kissing Bridge": a kiss, in relative privacy inside the structure, was required as a toll to cross. A historical summary notes that local girls learned to be wary when their escort's horse stopped inside the bridge without any command from the driver. The Kissing Bridge Trailway for hikers, which passes through the settlement, takes its name from this.
The bridge carries pedestrians, horse-drawn buggies and vehicles under three tonnes across the Grand River. In 1959 through traffic was diverted to a new concrete bridge on Highway 86 (now Township Line 86), so the crossing now serves the small settlement itself. The interior is narrow, with louvred openings near the top of the walls letting in light and air.
The bridge was featured in the 1995 film In the Mouth of Madness, and scenes for It (2017) were filmed around it. The latter is set in Maine, where nine covered bridges still stand.
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