Thank you very much. What a beautiful crowd. Thank you for all showing up. A couple of preliminaries here. When I first proposed this uh I think it was Allison Bell said I said I want to talk about the historic
bridges of Franklin County. She said, "Define historic." I said, "Okay." Well, actually, and let's see where we can get this here. This is the Bardwell's ferry bridge, which we'll be hearing a lot
about tonight. Uh, when I said I was drawing from three sources. First is listing in the National Register, which is a sort of the nation's official list of historic properties. And of the 21
bridges that I'm discussing, 18 of them are listed in the National Register. Second, uh, which is pretty impressive for, you know, a reasonably small population county like Franklin County. I mean, I think that's as many
as there are in San Francisco County. Uh second uh is a list of that they have been recorded by the historic American engineering record which is a u service that the national park service
does to to make a record of the truly significant examples of engineering which is like dams and and highways and bridges equivalent of the historic American building survey for for buildings.
and of the the it isn't necessarily it it isn't necessary to be listed in the national register to be recorded by hair but all there are seven of these bridges that have been recorded in hair and they're all listed in the national register there are also two bridges that
this is historic bridge foundation which is a crazy and I I mean I I is I rely on these people a lot I I know them reasonably well it's out of Austin, Texas, and they they compile information about old bridges throughout the
country, and they they're also an advocate for um preserving old bridges. That's that's what that's what they're about. The woman who runs it is Kitty Henderson, and I've always told people who want to uh do battle with her, don't
fight with a Texas woman named Kitty. you're not going to it's not going to turn out well. So, there were two bridges, two of the 21 bridges that uh are not in the register, haven't been recorded by hair, but uh Historic Bridge
Foundation had some information on them and they're wonderful bridges that absolutely should be listed in the National Register. So, that gets us to 20 20 of the 21. There's one bridge I'll let you guess about when when we get to it. It's not listed on any of these
three. It's here because I put it on you. I I think it's it's a it has a very interesting story and I think that the people of Greenfield will agree that it's a very interesting bridge that deserves on this
list. So, uh, one more preliminary I want you to think about, and in my many years of dealing with historic bridges and people who like historic bridges, I think they fall into one of
three groups. And as I make these presentations, see which one kind of describes you. First are people who like bridges that evoke an earlier time of which this is a Burkeville bridge in
Conway. One of the cutest covered bridges in Massachusetts I think. And uh this this is epitomizes brid bridges that evoke an earlier time. Second one is what I call trust
nerds. the the historic American engineering record oh in the 1970s maybe 1980s published what they called the field guide to historic trusts bridges and there little diagrams and in this
book if you end up taking it with you it has all these diagrams in it so that you can go out and say oh that's a Warren truss or that's a lenticular truss kind kind of like building nuts can say that's an
East Lake. No, that's a Queen Anne or Old Car Nuts. My father was an old car nut. Uh and I picked up a little of it myself. That's a Ford Grand Cherro and that's a Chevy El Camino. It there there
are people who who love to identify these different trusses and I I'll identifi I'll include some of the diagrams from that uh in this presentation. And the third one are people who love the structural beauty of
bridges. They're they're they're so big. I mean that frankly the vast majority of bridges in the United States are not pretty bridges. But the ones that are are really exceptional. There's nothing
quite like them because there's a a form that you can't get anywhere else and they're so big to have something beautiful that big. So, think about that as we go through these and I'll try to give a
hint as to who who uh which of these applies to each bridge. So, with that, let's go right into the beginning of these. This is a bridge from from in half of it in Conway, the other half is in
Shuburn. It's um called Bard Wells Ferry Bridge. Is uh Jerry Ho here. I got a nice uh note from from him about the history of this bridge and it was quite informative. I I haven't comm
I just got it this afternoon, so I haven't committed it to memory. I hope I I get this right. Uh this is the ultimate bridge trust nerd bridge. It's it's it is a a highly unusual uh trust
form and and it's actually is a is a nationally known example of the type of bridge that it is. It also just has a really interesting story and I would also maintain as you can it's it's out in the boondocks and it has such a
buolic setting that it almost evokes an earlier time the way that a covered bridge does. Uh brief history, Gideon Bardwell put a uh this is on the Deerfield uh
river uh built a ferry across the the Deerfield in the 1790s sometime some before 1800 and operated it for quite a bit of time. the other things like the railroad
began. There is a railroad line not very close to very close to the Shelburn end of this bridge and that it was a short line the Troy and Greenfield line I think.
Anyway, it took away some of the need for uh the ferry service and and by the end of by the end of the civil war, even the people even people named Bardwell were petitioning the two towns to build a bridge
here. And I think the two brid I think Shelurn wanted Conway to pay for it and Conway wanted Shelurn to pay for it and they both wanted Franklin County to pay for it. But they they argued about it for a long time. And finally in
1882, the two towns agreed to split the cost and they contracted with a bridge building company in um East Berlin, Connecticut, which is just south
of Hartford. And it is what is called a lenticular bridge which is it has most trusses and you'll see see these are are built around triangular some variation on a
triangular form. This has triangular pieces to it but it also has these two kind of parabolic uh curves and it's a very distinctive type. It's called a and this is from the hair calls it either a poly or a re
lenticular bridge. It was a kind of a um simultaneous invention by a German engineer named Paulie and a Connecticut uh engineer whose name was William Douglas and Douglas made arrangement
with this this was called the Berlin Bridge Company. He was an officer of the company and they he had this patented form. So the the Berlin company this the only thing they as far as I know anyway the only thing they ever
built were these lenticular bridges and there's not very many of them left which is one of the reasons why the Bardwell is is famous even in if I've seen national analyses of how these kind of bridges worked and they they use the
Bardwell as a case study. There's another little lenticular bridge in Ammerst. It's a on a a pedestrian trail. I didn't include it in this presentation because it's not in Franklin
County. There's also a really spectacular one across the Marramac in Lel. It's a two or three span. I think it's a three span lenticular. So this is this is it's not there's only a handful of these bridges in Massachusetts, but
there's way more when until I saw the Bwell Bridge. I had never se I knew of these, but I'd never actually seen one. There's there's none in California. I think they're they're somewhat more common in Massachusetts because it adjoins m uh Connecticut and it was easy to transport them up.
So, uh, the bridge has been closed by the state. It has some, it has some, um, it has some, uh, problems with one of the approaches, I think, and the deck, I think, as the brief report I saw
says it's not it's nothing to do with the trusses. The trusses are going to be fine. supposedly in 20 2027 I think it's going to be reopened for cars. But in the meantime when we went my wife and I went out to take a picture of the bridge and it was
a semiferal herd of goats that followed us all the way down. I mean I felt like the pied piper and uh and I took this picture with the the it's bad. It's good for goats and good
for pedestrians. And this is a very uh popular location for uh whitewater rafting on the Deerfield River, I think. And so it it gets its usees. You just can't drive on it. You can drive up to it. I I've never tried to get it from
the Shelurn side. I don't know. Is there anyone ever done that driven that way? Is it a difficult road or No, not too bad. It's not too bad on the Conway side either. You got to know what you're
doing. You know, it's not that tough. So, um, so you can tell on my I there was no obvious way for me to group these bridges. So, I did them half by type of bridge they are and half by location. So, we're moving from there to the
uh still on the Deerfield River, but in Shelurn Falls in the town of well, between Shelurn and Buckland. It's uh I would argue this this is what what it looked like when I went to see it several months ago. I
don't know what it looks I haven't been there recently. I think it's it's looking good. Oh, is it? It's going to be open this spring. They they've taken all the the shrouding off of it. because they were sand blasting and they didn't want that to get into the river. So, oh well good. I'm glad to hear that
because I would maintain this is a way it's I was going to say this may be the most popular tourist attraction in Franklin County. If it's not the it's certainly one of the most popular and I would say that this bridge is is is
beautiful. It falls into the beautiful structural beauty but is it is a nice looking bridge. I mean, I I find it a very pleasing form, but it's beautiful because what the women of Shelurn Falls do to it, plant all those flowers, and that's what people come to see the
flowers, I think, more than the bridge, but it's somewhat uh the the story briefly is is this was built by a trolley service that connected Shelurn Falls with Cole Rain.
Now, I've been in Cal Rain and I've been in Shelurn Falls and I initially thought you can't possibly run a trolley between two two sparsely settled communities, but it was before there were any car. It was started in the 1890s before there
were any cars and and it was difficult for people as as well as there were mills and there were there were farmers in the coarian area that had to get their produce and their products to the what the Boston and Maine and the
and the New Haven Railroad that that was was in the Buckland side of Shelurn Falls. So it it was um between that it was to bring people to Shelurn Falls and to
bring produce and then also I assume to take a lot of the raw material that was needed for the mills down to to u Corine. So it ran for without this bridge for
about 10 years. And but the the any cargo that came via the train had to be the trolley had to be offloaded to a wagon and taken to an iron bridge which is practically next door to this bridge and I'll be talking about it in a
minute. then transported and carried up to the uh the Boston and Maine and the trolley service uh quite logically said well why don't we just go directly to there be able to take the
trolley across so this bridge was built to carry trolleys across the river to meet up with the railroad and then in the 20s cars were were quite popular the
state had built uh what is now state route 112 up between Shelurn Falls and Corrain and the company went out of business and they they sold off virtually all of the rolling stock and
all the rails. They left this this bridge in place because it carried I think it was a water line across and uh then this the the leaders of Shelurn Falls talked I don't know how they got
in touch with the women's club of Shelurn Falls but somehow they ended up saying if you ladies want to plant a bunch of flowers here go ahead it and so it I don't I mean does anyone know of another bridge that's used like this in the street. I think it's kind of I mean
number one it's really really well done by the ladies. I mean it's been fantastic but the uh it's also such a unique idea. So the the this is what is called a closed
spandreal concrete arch and the spandrel is the area uh between the the arch and the deck and it's closed off and it's meant to be clo meant to be kept closed because it's
filled in with dirt. But for the ladies to be able to plant on it, they needed to take the deck off and which uh I read the preliminary report of what
they were going to do there then and it it made sense. What happened was that you're not supposed to take the deck off because it allows water to infiltrate the fill and then the water then gets down into any cracks in the concrete and
causes the rebar to rust and it spalls off the concrete. So they they're fixing it up, but that was a hundred years ago that this was turned over to them. And if they fix it up and it's going to be good for another century, you know, there's no planning horizon I know of
that that extends out that far. So we there I don't think there's anybody in this room is going to have to worry about what's going to happen next to that bridge. Certainly not me. So moving right along the um oh by
the way the the the bridge of flowers was designed by a consulting engineer named Edward Shaw who was an MIT graduate. had a what seemed like it was a lone wolf shop in
Boston. And even though he was strictly a a Massachusetts Bay uh resident, he did most of his work out here. The bridges that I know of that he designed was the two in
um Shelurn Falls and one in North Field, which I'll be talking about, and there's another one down in Chapi. So, I think he kind of sold his services to these little towns that I I be willing to bet that there wasn't a structural
engineer working for either Shelburn or Buckland at that time. May not be one today. It's highly unlikely that I mean, highly likely there's not one there today. So, he he he pedled his services to these smaller towns and he did a heck of a job. So, he also designed and he
knew all kinds of different materials. He did the concrete bridge. And then this is a a u this is this is built in 18 I've got it right there. 1890. Uh and it was built by I can't remember now the company that built it. This is some
local fairly local company. Maybe a company in Worcester. I can't remember. Anyway, it is we will talk about uh the Warren trusts. Uh these names for these trusses were mostly named after the person who
invented them. So presumably somebody named Warren. I forgot what his first name is. Is it but it's a very simple form built around equilateral triangles and it's I I think it's probably the most common trust type.
But what he designed here was what they call a double intersection warren. But this is also called a lattice truss. And you can see where it got its name. It looks like wood lattice. If you want to see a a lattice
truss, a really important lattice truss. the the railroad bridge is now takes the Norwegatic trail between Northampton and Hadley is is a stroll if you if you're
feeling like a leisurely stroll of you know a mile or so across uh the river that is a lattice trust really one of the biggest and most important lattice trust I didn't include it in in this presentation because it's
not in Franklin So then this is a third bridge that was built by or designed by Edward Shaw and this is in Northfield. Is anybody here from Northfield? Um the Shaw had had actually designed two
bridges in in Northfield. one it it it is called the darn it now Barrett Barretts Meadow Bridge. I think it it's a bridge that carries State Route 10 across the Connecticut today. The bridge doesn't exist. It's been replaced with a
much newer bridge. Replaced in the 60s I think. But um it didn't serve um there was a fellow named Francis Shell who really lived in New York. He had inherited what was apparently a very
sizable fortune from uh an investor, banker, father, and he mainly lived in New York. I've never been able to figure out what he did if any other than spend his father's money, but he he uh maintained permanent residence in New York, but he
built a kind of quaint summer home in Northfield. This is commonly called the Shell Chateau. I mean it is it's the chateau. Uh unfortunately it too has been demolished uh in the 60s I think. I
don't know why. I've never been able I mean I'm more interested in the bridges than anything else, but he he was not served adequately by the State Route 10 bridge. And he in order to get to the U railroad
depot, he wanted to have a bridge built closer to his house. And so he he paid for the Shell Memorial Bridge and named it Memorial because it was his daddy's money he was using.
And he this again is u ingeniousness of this guy Edward Shaw. Somebody should write like a master's thesis or something about this guy. He's pretty interesting character. I judging by his he for the he used the basic form was a
Pennsylvania pettit which was named not because it it was designed in Pennsylvania but it was used by the Pennsylvania railroad. They developed it and and popularized it. It was for very large spans. But what Shaw did was what
I believe a unique variation. This in the historic American engineering record. This come this is the original plan was come and is recorded in the in the hair document.
And one of the nice things is if they tear this bridge down, and it it's looking like that's probably what's going to happen, at least we will have a record of it. And that's what the historic American engineering record is about. the the the term of this being a
cantaliever. The a cantal lever is built around the idea that you you put a pier out into the water or near the water. Build one arm going back to the ground and anchor there. And then you build an
equal arm out the other way. And you do that from the two ends. And then you those give you platforms that you can use to build uh toward the center and without ever having to put up very expensive and difficult false work in
order to do the building. So you could it gives you a platform to work from. It's very ingenious. When we get around to the very last bridge I talk about is the French king bridge which is a magnificent structure. It too is was cantalvered
out. it built uh arms going both from the pier and then they were able to build the rest of the arch going from there. So, I don't know what what's going to become of this bridge. It's it's apparently it's somewhat uh controversial. I I do know I have seen
postings by Kitty Henderson and I hope the people of Northfield know what they're what dealing with here. Anyway, move moving on to a completely different type of bridge. It is 7:30. So, we're at Oh, it's 7:30 already. I'm
moving I'm moving right along. I'm moving right along. Um the the the uh there are four covered bridges that have have uh some note in Franklin County and that there's
there are only 12 in Massachusetts. So that's a that's a pretty high percentage. This one, there are two of them that each of which if you look at their website, they they each claim to be the oldest covered bridge in
Massachusetts. This one was built in 1870. The coal rain bridge was built in 1868. I happen to agree with Conway, but I'll get I'll I'll try to explain how and why
that's the case. Uh Burkeville is just a short distance away from uh the center of Conway, right along State Route 116, I guess it is. And and then this is on
Maine Maine Poland Road. And if anybody from Conway can tell me how that name came to be, that that would be very interesting. Anyway, it was a a sort of an industrial area as I understand it and the bridge served whatever kind of mill or whatever it was that was being
and this is on the South River. Uh this bridge has been it and the Conway bridge have both uh been
rehabilitated practically abandoned rehabilitated practically abandoned. It's a long story and I and I I will get into this that any any covered bridge that is as old as
this is is going to have to go through stages like that. you're lucky that you have any bridges that are this old and you can say okay wait a minute I have a house that's older than 1870 and I haven't gone through that kind but on your house doesn't isn't
open on both ends is heated during the winter and doesn't have cars going through it. So there there are you you have to yet you you have to break some eggs if you're going to make an omelette. It there's going to be a lot of work that is is done and this this
bridge has had a lot of work. God bless the people of Conway that they did it. Uh it's what I believe it to be a power truss which the trusses you think of
them as only metal truss but these are truly are trusses they're just made out of wood and they also have some metal there are are metal um tension rods but it's mainly up mainly out of
wood and it's like I say the bridge another bridge It's the one that is um some something about it was built in 1868, but it was built in co rain but in a completely different part of it was and across the north river. It's the
north river on the coin side and the south river on the Conway side. And this uh this bridge had uh been built at a different location and had suffered some damage and that the town decided in the
1890s I think to pick it up and move it, you know, quite a ways away. I would imagine it's probably 10 miles or between five and 10 miles from its original location. And uh and it it has been it has been
rehabilitated, damaged, rehabilitated, damaged um and is now in in wonderful shape. And I I guess you would call the the Conway Bridge is the oldest bridge that's on
its original location. Uh oh, and it also is quite distinctive. It's what's called a burr arch truss and and again it's it's like a little bit like the lenticular in the sense that it combines triangular forms with an arch
form but all in wood and the the the burr arch bridges are quite rare. The how is the most common. It's the Warren trust of the covered bridge but the uh burr arch is much more distinctive.
go out and go out I it's hard for me to tell you how to get there you from it's h I go I have a guy who who works on my machinery who who lives in coal rain lives very close to this bridge and I could tell you how we get
there but use GPS it'll get you there it's on a uh it's basically bypassed you can drive across it but So uh the the extent of work is was
pretty there are three ways that you can um deal with historic properties. You can preserve them, you can rehabilitate them, you reconstruct them for actually re reconstruct them or you can restore them. The these all have very technical
meanings. This was very extensive work but it all falls within the category of rehabilitation. Right? like rehabilitation on steroids. I mean it was a lot of rehabil rehabilitating but uh
then this is the one bridge that's not listed in on anything but I decided to include it because I think that it's uh much beloved by the people particularly of of Greenfield and it h just has such an
interesting story u I would you know the story of Ununice Williams right and she when she was put out of her misery um when she was killed, she was murdered. Uh it was
very close to where this bridge would exist today and there's a marker that and the people knew that because the people who were searching for her found her body there so it's known where it was. Anyway, in 18 in the 1870s, there was a br covered bridge
built at this location, not because it it was commemorating Ununice Williams, just happened to be they wanted to have a bridge across the Green River there. And that bridge, that bridge existed and was used
until Halloween night 1969 when four drunken teenagers uh either inadvertently or deliberately set it a fire and burned it burned it to the ground.
and the people of Greenfield appar from what I was able I've been able to read primarily through volunteer labor and through volunteer materials retored the bu well they replicated
would be what I would term I would use it reconstructed maybe but it's really replicated the bridge in 19 and it was completed in 1972 uh it was on site And then in 2011,
Hurricane Irene came through, knocked and flooded the Green River, knocked it off its foundations, and it was you can see that it was built up with a much much taller abutments. But I think it this this bridge has has
kind of endured through a lot of suffering and in that way is kind of symbolically connected to Ununice Williams and the whole whole uh Williams family. The the fourth bridge is the
Bissell Bridge in in Charlemont and it it's uh on state route 8A state route in in the in the but it's kind of in the boondocks if you ever if you go up there
it's a it's a onelane bridge and u and in the 50s uh the state this was state owns this bridge and state built this bridge they they said that the covered bridge was inadequate uh
decrepit and they wanted to replace it and the people of Charlotte begged Mascot to build another covered bridge there, more or less replicating what was torn down. And the state went ahead and did it. They hired an engineering firm
that that focused on on uh wooden bridges and they rebuilt it. And then again in, you know, 50 years later, that was in 51. 50 years later, the state was saying, "Well, it's about time to replace that bridge." and and the uh
Charlemont Select Board and the people of of Charlemont begged the state to uh redo it in a u to rehabilitate the existing bridge and that's what they did and it's listed in the National Register I believe
because people of Charlemont really really love the bridge and don't want to have it um replaced. So now we get to two the two bridges that were identified by Historic Bridge Foundation and not by the National
Register and not by hair. And these are in Irving. What they have in common is they're they're in Irving. They're on the Miller's River and they're very difficult to
find. And I and you really you really if I was strongly recommending using GPS to find to find these bridges, but they're worth doing. I mean, this one is called Farley Road Bridge, and I think this was
a there was a mill at the far end of this. It's not there anymore. The it what's distinctive about it is it has what's called a Phoenix column. was a Phoenix uh bridge
company specialized in building its uh in post all of the major pieces. This is a picture of the actually the Phoenix column. And what what it is is it was cast iron in four pieces that together
formed a circle and they were riveted together to form an incredibly strong I mean this this is a really old bridge. Uh and and these are quite rare. Not as rare as a lenticular, but they're they're
they're you don't find very many of these around. I wouldn't I wouldn't bet that there's more than dozen of these in Massachusetts. The other one is called, as near as I can tell, is called the Mineral Road Bridge. Although there we
drove that. My poor wife had to take me find this place. There are no signs. This is Mineral Road. Nearest I could tell. And it and the doesn't show up on maps as far as I know, but uh it's the French King Bridge if you cross it going
east and then you you can turn just just when you get past the eastern be the southeastern corner of the bridge. There's a little road that goes down the hill and that's Mineral Road. Takes takes you down there. Uh this was it's
an old old bridge built by a company in Canton, Ohio. It's also the way that you you get to the picture that I showed you. That beautiful arched bridge was the the
French King Bridge. And it's not not really all that impressive of a bridge from the deck level. But if you want to see really appreciate it, you come you go down here. You have to walk across this. This is on a pedestrian trail. walk across this, go down to the confluence of the Connecticut and the
Millers, and you get that beautiful view. So, now we're going to move quickly through a bunch of bridges in Turner's Falls. Are there Turner's Falls people here? Montigue people. Well,
uh, I'm a historian, historic preservation guy, and I in my favorite place to visit in Franklin County is Turner's Falls. It's just such an interesting place because of its industrial past. And
and if you're going to go visit it, first place I would go to is the I mis I mistyped this. It's actually called the Great Falls Discovery Center rather than the Turner's Falls. Uh referring to the St. Pauls, just two different names for
the St. Pauls. And this is in a remnant of the Montigue paper mill. And it's of some interest to me and particularly to my wife because her greatgrandfather Patrick Punch was an
Irish immigrant and he worked at this mill maybe in this building for 25 years. Anyway, uh the there was a barge canal that was built just after the Revolutionary War. It went out of
business when the trains got through. Then a enterprising man named Alva Crocker bought up that, expanded it and laid out a power
canal and and then proceeded to sell um mill sites which would be on the right side of the canal if you're looking downstream. whereas and to sell church sites, restaurant sites,
apartment house sites on the right side and then of course they were it was necessary to have some way for people who lived on the left side to get to work their place of work on the right side. So there are six bridges along here that one of which I'm taking here
from from uh one of those bridges. The the canal is to me the bridges are are somewhat interesting, but the the the biggest piece of civil engineering is this canal that's 15t
deep, 130 ft wide and miles long. It's an incredible structure. So, one of the bridges uh there were two had to have two types of bridges. one for people because there were hundreds of people who had had to
go get from the the left side to the right side and then back to go home. So, this was a pedestrian bridge for the Keith Mill, which is also sometimes called the Strathmore because I guess it
was purchased later by them. Uh then there's also a vehicular bridge at Fifth Street. This is a a replace somewhat newer replacement from the 1950s, but still a fairly old
bridge. All of these are Warren Trusses, by the way. Some variation on the Warren Trust. And right next to it is a pedestrian bridge. Little further downstream is a sixth street bridge. And I as I'm trying to remember, I think this one is totally
closed. I don't think you can even walk on this one. And then uh this is the only one of those bridges that had these are all listed in the National Register as part of a big historic district for Turner's Falls, but this one actually has has
been individually uh recorded by Historic American Engineering Record. It has its own its own status. It's one of the weirdest bridges I've ever seen. The the bridge engineers, trust builders,
make a distinction between a through truss and that's where the trusses are joined at the top. So you walk through the trusses or if they're not joined at the top, it's called a pony trust. Now I how they got to be pony truss I really
don't know but kind of a silly name but in this particular bridge you have two through trusses for pedestrians they joined with girders underneath to create a gigantic pony truss and I read through
the historic American engineering description of this bridge and essentially what they sell say is damnest thing I ever saw. highly unusual. So, so then we get to a series
of bridges that were built in response to the floods of 1936 that were some of the worst floods in the history of the state. Maybe the worst. I'd like to call them the St. Hattie's Day flood because it started on
March the 17th and when it was a heavy rainfall, heavy snow melt, the Connecticut River just was went wild. So the first uh the first one this
is just away from this is right where the the um Connecticut most of the Connecticut or large part of the flow of the Connecticut River is pushed into the power canal. to the right just this is the power canal on this side. This was designed by a guy named
George Harkness who who worked for the state was a was a state engineer with what we now call Mass Dot. He had worked for a lot of other private companies and took his job with the state just in time to be what must
have been head of the bridge department when the flood went through and knocked out all these bridges. So he he he was able to design a whole series of really really interesting bridges along this the Connecticut River. Uh this is a
what's called a deck truss. The deck is on top of the truss. If you don't trust me about George Harkness, you can see his name right there. And uh it's distinctive because part of his
design is to have these really huge pylons. It kind of towers right there and at the other end. And it's a signature thing for his bridges. All of his bridges have that. So just not very far downstream
from that's called the the Turner's Falls Gill Bridge. Not very far downstream from that, there was a massive uh covered bridge that had been built in the 1870s that connected Greenfield with um Montigue, Montigue
City. Montigue City is not a city, but it's it's a name for a village within Monteue. And uh it this bridge was uh the water just knocked it right off of its
u right off of its peers and abutments. Uh I have the the length of it down there because uh in in uh between Vermont and New Hampshire this the Windsor Cornish bridge that advertises
itself as the longest covered bridge in the country. Now, I have no idea whether that's true or not. It's it's very long bridge, but it's only twothirds the length of the uh the one in in Montuse City because the it's further downstream
and then the Deerfield has flowed in and other other big streams have flowed in by that time. So, um the when the when the
um when the bridge got knocked off its when the covered bridge got knocked off its abutments, the Greenfield and Monteue were saying, "Okay, Greenfield, we'd like you to replace this bridge and vice versa." And
they all say, "Well, why in the state do it?" And so they argued and argued and nothing happened before it was it was just left as a abandoned bridge until uh World War II. And then virtually no domestic construction was going on,
civilian construction was going on during the war, but shortly after that they built this, which is a Pennsylvania pettit trust. We've saw one of those once before and it was named uh for a
leading war hero, Spanish American war hero and political leader uh named uh Frederick Pierce, General Pierce Bridge. So, uh, just downstream from
there, the the darn the the the the Montigue City covered bridge because it's wood is floating on the flood water from the Connecticut and not and just downstream from there there was a railroad bridge which was a very very
useful bridge for the New Haven Railroad and it was built uh in the 1880s had three spans fans on built on stonemasonry peers. Really a lovely bridge, but the Montigue city knocked out two of those
fans. And the railroad railroad had um enough invested in serving Turner's Falls. It was on what was called the Turner Falls branch that they immediately rebuilt that with two new spans. So, what you've got is one of the
three is an is a 1880 Whipple truss and this these are really quite quite rare and uh there so one of the three is in 1880 and then there's two spans that
were um built in 1936. So it's a kind of a composite but it it's listed in the National Register and I would firmly agree with that. the the the Massachusetts uses it as a part of a recreational trail called the
Creekide Trail. So, a little further down, some of you probably know this bridge and you can kind of see kind of see the similarity of it to the to the
Turner Falls Gil Bridge designed by the same guy and built by the same agency. It's a deck truss on concrete peers. It it the the Monteneu City Bridge still floating down here. It just causing havoc all the way through knocked this
old um metal truss off it off its peers and and the state built it new by designed by George Harkness. I Harkness just to cut to the future
here. uh was a designer of the French King bridge which makes him you know right in in the annals of great bridge engineers as far as I'm concerned and he showed in the French king that he had
some sense of how these bridges should relate to their setting and this is a picture taken I think shortly after the bridge was built and the way it conforms to the to the Sugarloaf Mountainhouse
house quite quite it has these characteristic u concrete pylons uh that you see in it and you see you see it in the um um French king bridge and you also see
it if you're ever in driving between Northampton and Hadley the uh what's called the Calvin Kulage bridge also designed by Harkus and it also has these same kind of pylons I didn't include that in this presentation. It's not in Franklin
County. Okay, you're getting the gist of it. Yeah. So then, which takes us to the last of the bridges that we're talking about, which was another Harkness Harkness bridge. This was was unaffected
by the 1936 flood. It was built and was in place. Uh what may have been spared by the flood waters because of the way it was built, but it was really built not to replace anything, but uh route two had been totally realigned and they
needed a new crossing and this this particular crossing was uh the best one that they could find. It's the It's a blending of, in my opinion, it's a blending of the natural beauty of the
setting with the careful attention to detail of the bridge itself. Uh, most bridges in my humble opinion are ugly and and and detract from the setting
more than they enhance it. what the and some bridges are u are beautiful in and of themselves but they're they don't they're not built in a setting that is um worth preserving or is not notable
setting. There's a few bridges like this one and a few others I'm going to show you from my experience in California. Th this was a a setting that it was very controversial at first because the Golden Gate was, you know, was and still
is m much beloved by the people of the Bay Area. You're going to ruin putting a bridge across it. It'll ruin it setting. It was just worked out that the bridge ended up enhancing its
setting even not only not detracting but actually actually contributing to its setting. There's another bridge. Has anyone ever been on the big su in California? It's a incredibly dramatic setting and
it's a little bit like a little closer analogy to the French king although it's a concrete bridge but it's an arched bridge in a very deep gravass very deep canyon uh the in addition to being uh beautiful
the the French king was quite a remarkable piece of engineering and what what Harkness did was to use a cantal lever again. And this is a real good view of what the the two arms of the cantal lever. And they they built that first and then they could use the
riverside river arm as the platform to continue building the u building the arch connecting the the arches. Uh and this actually was taken by my wife.
She is a So it it it has these classic even though it predated the New Deal. So it's really I don't I wanted to call them New Deal pylons, but they're really art deco pylons is what if I had to call them
something. The one thing I knit I have to pick with Mass Dot is uh this is a suicide prone bridge. And uh you know and I I I don't object
to doing what we can to keep people from why it is that people want to go to a beautiful bridge like the Golden Gate or this I don't know it's just be out of my out of my area of expertise but it it
seems to attract them. And there are two ways, oh there's probably more than two, but the two ways that you can prevent uh people from from killing themselves by jumping off the bridge is to put up a barrier like
what this or what they're doing at the Golden Gate is to put a net down below so that if you if you jump off, you're going to fall into net and you're probably going to knock yourself out. Might even kill yourself just by landing in the net. But it but
uh this is the cheapest way I this is what I not what I would have done but it's something they they had to do. You can you can agree with me or disagree with me. That's it. So which brings us
to the final question is are you a person who likes old bridges because they evoke at earlier time? Are you some are you a person who who is a a trust nerd or are you a person who appreciates
the beauty of a bridge or are you someone who just thinks about a bridge that gets you from one side of the river to the other? So could I can I have a hands up on are you a a evokes evict evokes earlier times?
Are you are you a bridge nerd? Oh, are you a person who, by the way, I happen to be all four of these, right? Uh, are you a person who appreciates the structural beauty? Whoa, this is a little surprising. And and who of you could
care less about all this? You just want to get from one side of the room to the next. Okay. Well, that is that uh concludes my presentation. And I want to thank you for coming out. It's a huge number.