The historic Tilton Island Bridge is going to get repaired after all.
“We expect to lift it off with a crane in July 2025, move to its engineering site and restore and replace it in 2026,” said Tilton Town Administrator Scott Hilliard.
The news isn’t unexpected, but it had been on hold because of uncertainty about whether the Trump administration would block a $500,000 grant from the National Parks Service. The town recently heard, however, that the money will be coming through.
The project is estimated to cost $518,000, including the removal, restoration and replacement of the pedestrian bridge.
“Anything above the $500,000 will come from a combination of donations and a local restoration account from the annual budget approval by taxpayers,” Hilliard said.
Arnold M. Graton, a Holderness company that specializes in restoring historic bridges, has the contract to remove the 145-year-old bridge with a crane, take it to their shop to fix it over the winter and then replace it next year. Duplicating the bridge’s damaged decorative cast-iron pieces will the hardest part, officials have said.
The bridge was built in 1881 to connect the town with Tilton Island Park in the middle of the Winnipesaukee River. It is a rare example of a bridge made with cast iron using a patent issued to Lucius Truesdell and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The bridge was closed in 2021 because of safety concerns related to the condition of the iron, especially on the end adjacent to Route 3, where road salt caused metal to rust. Route 3, or Main Street, runs very close to the river at that point.
Removing and replacing the bridge will require closing the road. A Cumberland Farms store directly across the street will be used as a staging ground for the work, taking up much of its parking lot. Hilliard said the company has been cooperative and helpful.
Until 2021, the island park was split between the towns of Tilton and Northfield, whose border runs down the middle of the river, even though Northfield never had a bridge connecting to it. In 2021, both towns approved moving the border, and Tilton now owns the entire island.
