an old troll bridge in the middle of the woods..

March 25, 2019

Sounds like a line from a Grimm’s fairy tale!

It has just turned spring, and things are ramping up quickly around here. While we are gearing up to start the outdoor projects, I thought I’d show you something we did last summer out on the property. I’d meant to post about it at the time, but it just got away from me. So, no better time than the present.

There is a quaint little bridge that leads from our house to a pond just a short ways away. Soon after we moved in, we began calling it the “troll bridge”, although we have yet to see a troll hiding out under it. He must be shy.

I’m not sure how long the bridge has been in place, most likely since the house was built in 1997 or a little after. Although there is another way to reach the pond, we do use this bridge frequently when traipsing about the place. Last year we noticed that several of the planks were getting soft and one was even showing decay. We didn’t feel very safe walking across it for much longer.

Cue…let’s build a bridge!

The troll bridge is roughly fourteen feet long and three feet wide. It’s made of 2×4 cedar boards, forty-three of them to be exact. We planned to replace the boards and were hoping and praying that the support beams were in good shape. If not, our project would have really magnified in scope.

We had 12′ cedar boards delivered and the man cut them into 3′ sections. Having them all ready to go, the next step was to remove the old planks. They had been attached to the support beams with 3″ nails, which he just pried out using a pry bar. That was the hardest part and took the longest.

We were relieved that the support beams were in good condition, still solid. Whew! Having to replace those would have meant a whole other level of work, as they are anchored into concrete at each end.

Attaching the new planks went smoothly. He used 3″ deck screws, two per each end of the plank.

When I was searching for pics of this project, I realized I never took the official “after” photo. Must’ve meant to then never did, so these next photos were taken yesterday.

Over time the cedar will weather to a nice silvery gray.

Here is one that shows the pond, too. The gully under the bridge feeds into the pond, but only when it is raining; otherwise, it’s pretty much a dry creek bed.