Rising in the polls this week, Romney is eager to follow through by hammering at the White House's handling of the weak economy.

He used the backdrop of a 1860s-era bridge in New Hampshire to illustrate what he called the wasteful government spending of President Barack Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan passed in 2009.

The stone bridge, rebuilt with more than $150,000 of stimulus funds, crosses a river but ends abruptly on one side with an 8-foot (2.4-metre) drop to a grassy field near a Ford dealership.

"This is the absolute 'bridge to nowhere' if there ever was one," Romney told a crowd of supporters. "That's your stimulus dollars at work - a bridge that goes nowhere."