DELAWARE — In horse-and-carriage days, riders who perhaps enjoyed the spirits a tad too much at the local watering hole would be tricked when they got to Green Sergeant's Covered Bridge in Hunterdon County.

“They would enter the bridge, which looks a lot like a house, come to a halt — thinking they were home — and immediately fall asleep, right there in the middle of the bridge,” noted Marfy Goodspeed, a local historian in Delaware Township.

Travelers don’t catch Z’s in the wooden span anymore, but the unique structure — the last remaining public covered bridge in New Jersey — has felt like home for generations of West Jersey residents.

First, the correct pronunciation of Green Sergeant.

It’s sir-gent.

“If you say ‘sar-gent,’ we all know you don’t come from around here,” Goodspeed said with a laugh.

The covered bridge, named after local mill operator Richard Green Sergeant, was constructed on existing abutments over the Wickecheoke Creek in 1872. Sitting in the White House was President Ulysses S. Grant.

When carriages gave way to cars, drivers had to stop and honk before crossing the one-lane span, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as New Jersey’s last covered bridge.

The landmark, located in Delaware Township, near Stockton, had fallen into disrepair by 1960. Its superstructure was dismantled to make way for a modern bridge.

But after an outcry from residents who wanted to preserve the structure, the state rebuilt the 84-foot-long span in 1961, using materials from the original covered bridge.

An eastbound lane was added in the form of an uncovered concrete and stone bridge, eliminating the need for westbound travelers driving through the covered bridge to stop and honk.

“Around here, we have so much history around us that is visible, most of the people here care very deeply about it,” Goodspeed said. “And so any threat to any of these sort of structures is immediately going to get a rise out of them.”

The peculiar bridge on Rosemont Ringoes Road fits the sometimes-quirky personality of the region. Nearby is a general store that offers eat-in Chinese food.

The reconstructed covered bridge, which has what looks like a boardwalk on the bottom and a barn roof on top, celebrates its 50th birthday this year.

The bridge earned a mention in a book by Eric Sloane, a folklore author and landscape painter.

On his way from New York to New Mexico, Sloane got a job painting an advertising sign for a tavern that was to be attached to the covered bridge.

At the far end of the bridge, he noticed a woman’s handbag in the middle of the road. When he tried to pick up the purse, the clasp broke and a load of horse dung was exposed, as five boys laughed hysterically at their prank behind nearby bushes.

Joe Voorhees found joy, not dung, when he inspected the bridge twice as part of his duties.

“You don’t get a chance to see something like this very often,” said Voorhees, a civil structural engineer who inspected the bridge in 2000 and 2002. “It is something after my heart. I love things like this. You are connected to the past — especially the past that had so much to do with the growth of this country.”

Covers above and on the sides were used to protect the heavy bridge timbers from the elements — the snow on the roof and the wind blowing on the side. Green Sergeant’s was originally made of pine truss braces, head beams and side timbers.

Covered bridges ran across the Delaware River in the early 19th century, including ones in Trenton and Lambertville.

In western New Jersey, a region once rife with covered bridges, Green Sergeant’s was not unique in 1872.

It is now.

“If people read about covered bridges, they try to imagine: What is a covered bridge like?” Goodspeed said. “And you could only go so far if you’ve never seen one. Since this is the only one New Jersey has — and a lot of people in New Jersey can’t get out to Pennsylvania or Ohio and see all the bridges that they have there — they can come here and actually see what a covered bridge is like, see how big those timbers are, see what it’s like when you’re crossing through it.

“It’s much better than just trying to imagine it.”

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