Hunterdon County Commissioners hold ribbon cutting to celebrate recently renovated Green Sergeant’s Covered Bridge

DELAWARE TOWNSHIP, NJ (Hunterdon County) – The Hunterdon County Commissioner Board, along with Sheriff Fred Brown, Prosecutor Renee Robeson, Delaware Township Committeewoman Susan Lockwood, and members of the County Department of Public Works and Engineering celebrated the official reopening of the recently renovated Green Sergeant’s Covered Bridge.

Hunterdon County Commissioner Director Jeff Kuhl said, “Preservation of this important piece of our history is something that means a great deal to not only my colleagues and me, but also to local residents, historians, and our county department of public works and engineering that were instrumental in helping to complete this project.”

The historic covered bridge dates back to 1872, when the first known covered bridge was erected at the site. One of the local businesses that was believed to have a stake in the bridge’s caretaking was the nearby Sergeant’s Mill owned and operated by Charlie Sergeant and later by his son, Richard Green Sergeant.

The Green Sergeant’s Bridge as it was and still known was constructed for approximately $1,300 in 1872.

The first major repairs to the covered bridge were necessary due to a suspicious fire that occurred in 1932. The need for repairs from the fire also gave the County and its bridge designers the opportunity to strengthen the bridge because its original design did not anticipate the birth of the automobile age.

Additional repairs would again come after a 1960 accident in which a large truck carrying a heavy load struck the bridge causing it to fail and be closed. By 1961, to delight of many, the bridge was reopened to the public after the then Hunterdon County Freeholder Board authorized the necessary repairs to be made.

In 1974, The Green Sergeant’s Bridge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and in 1998, the Covered Bridge Historic District was created and listed on the National Register.

Hunterdon County Commissioner Shaun Van Doren, who serves as liaison to the Department of Public Works and Engineering shared the history of the Green Sergeant’s Covered Bridge and recited a poem that was written by Clinton Wilson at the 1961 rededication ceremony. One of the lines of the poem read by Commissioner Van Doren noted, “If this old bridge could tell us about the long ago, what a legend would unfold that some would like to know.”

Pastor Peter Mantell who serves as Senior Pastor at the Sergeantsville United Methodist Church provided a moving prayer and bridge blessing prior to the cutting of the ceremonial red ribbon.