New England bridge books!

Portal to Eunice Williams Bridge

An expanded version of the ghost story associated with the Eunice Williams Bridge can be found in the book "Haunted New England". I saw it while I was down at Barnes & Nobles today. I don't know if there were any other haunted bridges in the book, but if you're really into New England's creepier side... well, this is the book for you.

What other New England bridge books were there? I didn't find any. Luckily, Amazon has some -- including some of the most authoritative books on local bridges I've seen.

"Connecticut's Covered Bridges" is probably going to be a pretty short book, given we only have three active road covered bridges left (the book lists four; they must count that one in Avon). Dale Travis lists dozens of covered bridges in Connecticut, but most of them are pedestrian only.

Bruce Clouette is the expert on Connecticut's historic bridges; the web site version of his book "Connecticut's Historic Highway Bridges" was invaluable to me starting out. He has a new(er) book about Connecticut's Movable Bridges which I can only think would be a subset of the other book.

Now, New England's Covered Bridges by Benjamin and June Evans... that might be worth checking out. I know when I take my vacation in Vermont, I'm going to need to know where these bridges are.

Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge, North Kingstown-Jamestown, RI

Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge

Rhode Island is the country's smallest state but among its most densely populated. With Narragansett Bay splitting the state in two, it has miles and miles of protected coastline -- and a straight shot for any hurricanes heading up the coast, aiming straight for Providence, at the northern tip of the bay. The "island" in Rhode Island is Aquidneck Island, the large island in the bay where Newport stands. It was also known historically as Rhode Island; the mainland portions of the state were known as the Providence Plantations, and that is the full name of the state -- Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

I was headed to Newport this weekend to take in the America's Cup. So very, very crowded. So crowded that I couldn't take the crowds and left to take pictures of bridges and walk around Providence for a couple of hours.

The Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge connects the town of North Kingston with the island of Conanicut in Narragansett Bay. It is a concrete box girder bridge with a dramatic rise to allow ships to sail through on their way to Providence. Unlike its partner on the other side of the island, the Pell Bridge, there is no toll on the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge. And though there is a narrow sidewalk on both sides, you cannot walk or bicycle on the bridge.

Giovanni da Verrazzano monument in Providence

It's no coincidence that two bridges in the area (this one and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in Staten Island) are named after famed explorer Giovanni da Verrazzanno. Unlike Christopher Columbus, who was content to explore the Caribbean and never sat foot on (what would become) North America, Verrazzano sailed up the coast from the Carolinas to Newfoundland, stopping in New York Harbor and Narragansett Bay. It was he who, upon seeing Aquidneck Island, compared it to the Greek island of Rhodes and gave the state its eventual name.

There is a monument to the explorer in front of the World War Memorial in Providence.

Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge (from Jamestown)

This picture was taken on in Jamestown on Conanicut Island, with the sun to my back instead of right in the camera.

This entire island, and the Kingstown coast, are the exclusive domain of the wealthy. There is no beach access that I could find at all. The first picture was taken from the parking lot of a private club; this one from the side of the road. I got the shots, but I could have gotten better ones.

You can barely see in the above photo, to the left of the central rise, a lighthouse peaking out from behind a column. This is the Plum Beach lighthouse, but I think you'd actually have to be sailing on the bay itself to get a decent picture.

Parking, well, there really isn't any. Plenty of places from which to view the Pell Bridge on the other side, but the west coast of the island is all private property from any possible viewing angle.

Gold Star Memorial Bridge, New London-Groton, CT

The Gold Star Memorial Bridge crossing the Thames

Connecticut sure loves cribbing names from the mother country. London -- sorry, New London -- on the Thames? Though maybe they hadn't actually been to the original London at all, since our version of the Thames is pronounced the way it's spelled -- rhymes with games -- and not the English way, tems.

Once one of the major whaling ports in America, New London continues its maritime traditions to this day. It is the home to the US Coast Guard Academy and Global Dynamics' Electric Boat shipyard, where the US nuclear submarine fleet is built and maintained. Busy ferries carry passengers across Long Island Sound to Long Island, Fisher's Island and Block Island.

The Gold Star Memorial Bridge is a pair of steel deck truss bridges that carry I-95 over the Thames. The first bridge was constructed in 1943, and the second thirty years later. Together, they comprise the largest structure in the state of Connecticut, and by far, the longest bridge.

The bridge is just massive. See how it looms behind those warehouses. It absolutely dominates the river.

Amtrack's Thames River Bridge

Paralleling the Goldstar is the nearly as impressive Thames River Bridge, which carries Amtrak over the river. It consists of four truss spans (Wikipedia calls them Warren truss, but they look like Parker truss to me -- Warren truss bridges have no vertical members) and a lifting section in the middle -- the two towers are a dead giveaway.

Pratt truss railroad bridge

Just before the Thames River Bridge, on the New London Side, is this small truss bridge that crosses a N/S set of tracks. Completely overshadowed by the Goldstar and the Thames River Bridge. Sitting there lonely and rusting.

New London is definitely worth a visit on its own merits; there's lots of remnants of its historic past, its roles in the Revolutionary War and its aftermath. It is one of the earlier settlements in New England. Forts guard the mouth of the Thames. There's even an old sailing ship moored in the harbor.

There's no special place to park for the bridge. It's huge. You'll see it. However, if you're looking for a distinctive place to visit whilst admiring the bridge, why not stop by the Old Town Mill?

Old Town Mill

This mill, built in 1650 by the town of New London's founder, John Winthrop Jr, stands today after having been rebuilt several times in its 350+ year history, including most notably after being torched by the traitorous Benedict Arnold during the British invasion of New London in 1781.


It is literally in the shadow of the bridge.

Train Bridge, Depot Street, Manchester, CT

Train crossing Adams St

Sure, it's not much of a bridge, but it took awhile to get the picture. This bridge is fairly near my house, and the tracks parallels my ride home. Sometimes I meet the train along the way, but always I'm behind it. If I could only get ahead of the train...

I heard the distant sounding of the train horn this morning... I'd only have a few minutes. I grabbed my iPhone and my bike and got to the bridge just before the train.

So; not much of a bridge, but it's a picture I really wanted, anyway.

Coombs Covered Bridge, Winchester, NH

The Coombs Covered Bridge crosses the Ashuelot River

I didn't even know this bridge existed. I'd planned my trip to New Hampshire to pass by a couple covered bridges in Massachusetts (the Eunice Williams Bridge in Greenfield and the Burkeville Covered Bridge in Conway), but hadn't even checked to see if I'd be passing any such bridges in New Hampshire. No worries, though -- NH wasn't going to let me stay ignorant. Signs on Route 10 called me out to bridges again and again. The Monadnock area has seven covered bridges -- the Coombs Bridge is #2.

This bridge was built in 1837 by Anthony Coombs Jr, whose father, Anthony Coombs, was a Massachusetts expatriate who settled in Winchester after the Revolutionary War. Coombs lived just past the bridge.

After deteriorating to uselessness, in 1964 the bridge was extensively repaired and in 1967 completely renovated, with a new tin roof, beams, and sidings. Nonetheless, the bridge still appears today much as it did in 1837. A hundred and fifty years ago, if you'd looked down the river in the month of May, this is what you'd have seen. Well, except that in the nineteenth century, most of New England was deforested and given over to farms, so it's likely there would have been a lot fewer trees. New England is more covered with forest now than it has been for hundreds of years. Urban sprawl, however, is cutting into the forests once more, and this is the kind of growth from which forests find it hard to recover.

Portal to the Coombs Covered Bridge

The split granite abutments for the bridge are fitted so closely that there is no need for mortar. The truss work is in the patented Town truss style, instead of the more common Howe truss. The designer, famed Connecticut architect Ithiel Town, licensed his patent for two dollars a foot; this 118 foot bridge would have cost $236 to license. Town's design was also used for the West Cornwall Covered Bridge and the Bull's Bridge, both in Connecticut.

Historic Bridges of Hartford County

Melrose Road Bridge, East Windsor

There's eight bridges in Hartford County, Connecticut that are listed in the National Register of Historic Bridges. I had a yen to go visit them all in one day. I got to seven; that's when the muffler fell off my car, and I came home. The last is the Bulkeley Bridge, which I have written about before, so no big loss. Here are the other seven bridges, in the order in which I visited them.

The black and white photographs are from the accompanying documentation to the historic registry applications, and were in most cases taken at the time of the application to illustrate what it is that made this bridge historically significant. I didn't take them.

First bridge up is the Melrose Road Bridge in East Windsor. This pony truss bridge sits at the very end of Melrose Road, hidden by shrubbery, without a road bed. A walking trail along the Scantic River goes by the bridge. This bridge was built by the famous Berlin Iron Bridge Company, but they didn't install it. The city just wanted them to build the parts and drop it off, so that's what they did.

Bridge overgrown on both ends now.

The application for registered historic status has a fascinating look at the Melrose Road Bridge and the famous Berlin Iron Bridge Company. Note the lens-shaped curved structure of the truss; that was patented by the Berlin Bridge Company and this signature feature is one of the reasons this bridge has such great historical value.

I can just see a large, long wagon being pulled by a team of eight horses carrying a bridge all the way from Berlin in 1888. Though apparently they shipped the bridges in a partially assembled state via train. Well, I'm sure huge horse-drawn wagons were used at some point.

If I ever find myself shifted in time back to the late 19th century, I'm going to try and get a job at the Berlin Iron Bridge Company. Maybe I could do accounting for them, or something.

On the far bank of the river is a railing. Once, this bridge went somewhere; there was something on the other side; homes, villages, people. Now there's just forest. Someday soon this bridge will collapse into the river.

Bridge No. 455, Suffield

I thought I hadn't noticed ever driving over this bridge, and I may not have. I've biked over it, though -- twice -- during my single day photographing every bridge in Connecticut that crosses the Connecticut River. I remember at the time wondering if this bridge was worth photographing.

It's an open spandrel bridge, hidden by trees from every angle I could get to. I did see a state facilities road leading down and perhaps that could have given a better view of the bridge; I'll have to return with bicycle and see as there's no legal place to park nearby. Or just wait for winter and get it when the trees have no leaves.

This photographer wisely waited for winter to photograph the bridge

Bridge no. 455 is one of only six reinforced concrete, open spandrel arch bridges left in Connecticut. It replaced an earlier iron truss bridge and leveraged its unique design to rise high above the ravine in which Stony Brook runs. The earlier bridge sat much lower and had steep grades on either side. It is a marvel of 1920's engineering.

More detail about this bridge is available in its registration forms.

Farmington River Railroad Bridge, Windsor

For a small river, the Farmington River is oversupplied with beautiful bridges. We'll get to the Town Bridge soon, and I spotted a truss bridge crossing the river in Unionville, and another outside Simsbury that didn't make the register of historic bridges.

This railroad bridge carries the Penn Central line between Hartford and Springfield, Massachusetts. If the train had chosen the time I was there to make the crossing, I couldn't have been happier, but we were trainless the entire time. Built in 1867, the bridge has seen continual service and aside from periodic maintenance, looks identical to the time when it was built 145 years ago.

Farmington River Railroad Bridge in 1972, with train

This bridge, like the Main Street Bridge below, is made from Connecticut's signature reddish sandstone. More details can be found, as with the others, in its registration forms.

Stone Bridge on Main Street, Hartford

The looming glass building behind and above the old Main Street bridge is the Hartford Public Library. It's quite a contrast to the stonework of the bridge that once crossed the Park River. Now the river is filled in and is called the Whitehead Highway, but the bridge is still there. I first wrote about the Main Street Bridge in January.

This bridge once rose a full thirty feet above the river and was almost a full half circle arch, but since that's been covered, it's only twelve feet above the road at its highest, and most of the bridge is below the ground. Incidentally, the Park/Hog/Little River still flows through enormous underground tunnels that you can explore (or rather, could explore, but it seems to have been closed off. Or has it?

Stone Bridge and the Park River

So daring was this bridge's construction that it cost almost double what was budgeted and was (wrongly) considered so unstable that farmers arriving for the market that was held on the shores of the Park River would leave their horses on one side of the bridge and carry their produce over the bridge themselves rather than risk everything crashing, with the bridge, into the river below.

More info about the bridge in its registration forms.

Not the Pequabuck River Bridge, Farmington

This is not the Pequabuck River Bridge. It is a bridge over the Pequabuck River, but it is not the bridge that is on the register of historic places. THAT bridge is a little further down the road. I JUST NOW noticed that. I feel like such a moron.

I guess I'll write more about that bridge once I actually photograph it.

This is a nice bridge, though.

Town Bridge, Canton

I first photographed this bridge back in March, just after the last, light, snowfall of winter. I was a little disappointed with how the picture came out. It's a nice bridge, just off River Road/Route 179 in Canton. People were swimming, fishing, just having fun in the shallow waters of the Farmington River. The group traveling upriver in their rented kayaks made this picture, and for that I thank them.

Town Bridge from the portal

The Town Bridge was another example of the work of the Berlin Iron Bridge Company. This bridge uses the Parker truss design -- an improvement over the more common Pratt truss. The tops of Parker truss bridges curve, where the Pratt truss bridges are straight. We have both sorts in Hartford County. The curved top gives more strength to the center of the bridge, allowing it to bear greater weight. However, construction of this sort of bridge is more expensive than a standard Pratt truss, and was only used in longer bridges that needed the extra strength.

Note the iron work ornamentation on the bridge, typical of Victorian-era engineering.

I was pleased to read in the registration documents that after the Berlin Iron Bridge Company was bought out by J. P. Morgan's American Bridge Company, the former employees started the Berlin Steel Company and that company still exists today. One of the corporations that made Connecticut famous and changed the face of the Northeast in the 19th century, still doing business.

Old Drake Hill Flower Bridge, Simsbury

Our last bridge for today is the Old Drake Hill Flower Bridge in Simsbury.

That's what the sign called it, anyway. The flower bridge. It does have lots of flowers on it. There was some sort of function going on on the other side of the bridge so I didn't get the chance to walk over it. Walking over it is all you can do; it's closed for all but foot traffic.

Auto traffic has its own bridge. This bridge, the old one, is at the end of a bike trail that extends for miles. Simsbury is trying very hard to become the best city for bicycling in the state of Connecticut. Wide bike paths and plenty of places to pull off the road and look at the sights definitely puts this on the list of places I'd like to visit on two wheels.

A road once ran through it

This, like Canton's Town Bridge and another Simsbury bridge that I have not yet photographed, is a Parker truss bridge -- curved top -- and are the only surviving examples of this sort of bridge in Connecticut. All three are said by the registration documents to have been designed and built by New Haven's J. E. Buddington. Oddly, the documents for the Town Bridge didn't mention Buddington's involvement with the design, but it seems likely the Berlin Iron Bridge Company served as the fabricator for Buddington's variant of the Parker truss.

The Simsbury selectmen really, really wanted the previous wooden bridge over the Farmington River to be replaced by an iron bridge, but they couldn't pay for it. First, they allotted some money to strength the abutments and approaches to the old bridge, and when that work was done, they turned to actually erecting a new bridge.

Raising taxes to pay for bridge construction wasn't going to fly with the citizenry, and nobody wanted to secure a commercial credit note for the bridge (since if the city defaulted, who needs a bridge?). The city eventually floated five series of $2,000 bonds to pay for the bridge without raising taxes. They later did the same to pay for the other Parker truss in Simsbury.

National Register of Historic Places

When I posted the other day about the Burkeville Covered Bridge being on the National Register of Historic Places, I got to thinking about whether I'd seen all the suitably historic bridges in the Hartford, Connecticut area -- my area.

I downloaded the entire database in one comprehensive Excel formatted spreadsheet. I don't have Microsoft's Excel program, but was pleased to see the file opened fine in OpenOffice Calc. I filtered the sheet by State = Connecticut, Object Type = Structure and Name contains "Bridge" to get a list of all the registered historic bridges in Connecticut, copied those to a new sheet and did the same for Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

If I ever find myself running low on bridges or just don't feel like traveling all that far to get to one, I can now just open the spreadsheet and pick one off a list. Someone has taken the entire list and moved it into Wikipedia, so often there's more detail available online.

My car has just come out of the shop with a rebuilt engine and a warning to treat it gently for the first few hundred miles. So this weekend, instead of going off to Poughkeepsie, I figured I might just go see the bridges here in Hartford County.

I was shocked to see I'd missed some. Bulkeley Bridge I have, of course. The Main Street bridge in Hartford I got one cold morning. That was taken with the old camera with the scratched lens, though, and I wouldn't mind taking that one again. The Town Bridge in Canton was a favorite that I felt I didn't capture well. I photographed the bridge on Meadow Road in Farmington, but never wrote about it because it wasn't a great picture. The other bridges I didn't know about at all.

So that's the plan for the weekend -- capture all the Hartford County bridges that are registered as historic places.

The Canton, Simsbury and Windsor bridges all cross (I believe) the Farmington River. This river has a wonderful, paved bike trail along large sections and more ragged trails on the other sections, so that would be a potential bike trip. Or follow the Connecticut River up from Windsor to Suffield and get those three -- the Melrose Road one appears to be abandoned and hidden in some underbrush, best to find with a bike. I can get the two Hartford ones on my bike this morning if I wanted.

But to get all of these in one day requires a car. Anyway. Historic register is good stuff.