A lucky buyer with a $1 bill can purchase a historic bridge spanning the Warner River on Route 127. 

The bridge in southeast Warner is slated to be replaced by the state’s Department of Transportation. 

In an effort to preserve the materials – the bridge is deemed a historic I-beam bridge, first built in 1937 – the state is looking for willing buyers that will purchase and repurpose the beams. 

The going price? $1. 

“When we replace a bridge we make the old bridge available for adaptive reuse. In other words, present preservation,” said Richard Arcand, the public information officer for the state Department of Transportation. “We want someone to take the steel beams, what we call the stringers, and reuse them on a similar bridge project.” 

Prospective buyers must submit an application to the department that includes plans for how the bridge will be dismantled and moved, preservation and reuse plans, and site clean up. 

It is not every day a state bridge is for sale. In fact in the near decade that Arcand has worked for the state, only four or five bridges have been sold. 

“The cost to move it and set it in place is so expensive that they’re not often successful,” he said. “But we do try.”

The city of Keene purchased a bridge in 2021 to expand its local rail trails after pieces from a 1962 bridge over Interstate 93 in Londonderry were for sale. 

In Warner, public hearings held since 2018 have outlined the bridge replacement process. The town indicated that the preference would be to have the entire bridge replaced so that the road could also be widened to accommodate pedestrian and bike paths. 

The state assessment of the bridge indicated that the deck was in poor condition, while the beams were fair, but deteriorated enough that they did not warrant a new deck on “questionable beams and substructures,” engineer John Stockton said at a public hearing last spring. 

When the bridge was built in 1937, it was intended to last 50 years. Now, 87 years later, the sun is finally setting on this piece of infrastructure. 

While the beams cost $1, the entire project is estimated to be $4 million, through a mix of federal and state funding. The town is not required to pay anything. 

The bridge is in the Davisville Village Historic District and is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. It is also the oldest continuous I-beam bridge currently in the state and was one of two of its kind constructed prior to 1946. 

Previously, a wooden covered bridge crossed the river, however, it collapsed in 1936 after a flood. This steel beam bridge was built as a replacement. 

The department will soon be accepting proposals for two bridges in Andover and one in Pelham, according to their historic bridge dispositions website. 

Applications for the Warner bridge are due on September 9. If no one purchases the beams they become the property of the contractor. 

The goal, according to Arcand, is to advertise construction bids in June of 2025, with utility and prep work beginning that fall. The bridge would be closed in 2026 for one construction season. 

All proposals must be submitted electronically to Bureau16@dot.nh.gov with the subject line “Proposal for Adaptive Reuse Bridge in Warner.”