Gateway Park

Find a spot near the Downtown Montpelier sign, where you can see the Main Street bridge and the dam below. This is the site of the oldest bridge crossing in Montpelier. 

As you can see in this woodcut from 1820, the first bridge was built here above a modest log crib dam. A bridge and a dam have existed at this spot ever since. 

A picturesque covered bridge known as the Red Arch Bridge crossed the Winooski here at Main Street from 1826 until 1898. Before the flood of 1927, more than 700 covered bridges spanned rivers in Vermont! The roofs of these bridges were designed to prevent rot and decay.

The Red Arch bridge was replaced by a truss bridge in 1898. This stronger, steel bridge was designed to support increased manufacturing along the river. The dam below provided power to the Bailey Grist Mill, which once occupied the space where Shaw's is today.  

In 1934, the Civilian Conservation Corps replaced the power dam under the bridge with a new flood control dam. This monumental structure featured seven moveable steel gates that doubled the amount of water that could be stored behind it! Ultimately, this dam contributed to flooding and had to be dismantled.

In 1975, the superstructure of the flood control dam was removed and the dam lowered by four feet. The dam that we know today was kept in place to create a decorative waterfall and maintain a “reflecting pool” of water upstream of the bridge. 

Unfortunately, this dam currently contributes to flooding by holding back silt deposits. It undermines the ability of aquatic organisms to move upstream. It also prevents recreational use of the river because it generates dangerous currents.

Today's Main Street bridge serves as the gateway to Montpelier's commercial downtown. A continuous steel beam bridge that is largely utilitarian and unornamented, it is now transformed at night. Nineteen individual wash lights bathe the vertical supports of the handrails on either side creating two walls of light arcing over the river. The colors are changed regularly to support events and holidays celebrated downtown.