city of Hartford studied, debated, and studied some more just what kind of bridge to build. Three alternatives were considered: a simple steel girder structure estimated to cost $782,000, a more complicated steel arch design expected to cost $878,000, and a stone arch bridge at a cost of $1,600,000. In conjunction with the bridge, Hartford also decided to build a new approach road along the west side of the river that was estimated to cost an additional $708,000. Finally, in a referendum held on April 2, 1902, the voters of Hartford approved the appropriation of funds necessary to build the more expensive but low maintenance and longer-lasting stone arch bridge across the Connecticut River, together with the proposed approach road, with the city of Hartford to pay all expenses above the $500,000 limit set in the bridge legislation. In keeping with the Supreme Court decision that each town had only the taxing power given it by the state, the following year the legislature approved bills allowing the Bridge & Highway District and the city of Hartford to issue bonds in the amounts necessary to cover their portions of the cost of the new bridge and approach road.23
The new Hartford stone arch bridge, completed in 1908 and later named for Morgan Buckeley.
Crossing the Connecticut, by George E. Wright, 1908
Construction of the new crossing began in the summer of 1903 and lasted five years. Perhaps the most difficult part of the job was the construction of the underwater foundations for each of the six regular and two double piers that would support the span as it crossed the river. Under the guidance of chief engineer Edwin D. Graves, the foundations were constructed using large watertight caissons that were sunk around each pier site to provide a workspace—once the water had been pumped out—for the men known as “sand hogs,” who removed the dirt and rock from beneath the water’s surface. It was filthy, backbreaking labor.
For a day of eight hours, including a half-hour at the surface for coffee and rest, they were paid $2.50 till a depth of 55 feet had been reached, and then, on account of high air pressure, their day would be decreased to six hours and their wages increased to $2.75. Another raise of 25 cents was given while the concrete filling was being done inside the caisson, as the slaking lime made the temperature high, accompanied by an irritating odor. Burly negroes were generally employed in this exhausting work.24
Once the eight piers and the abutments at either end of the bridge were completed, the wooden falsework needed to support the stone arches was constructed within each span, and the exterior and binding stones, some weighing up to forty tons, were hand cut to exacting tolerances and lowered into place. Last of all, the stone understructure of the bridge was filled with concrete to the level of the roadway. The finished roadway was sixty feet wide, with double trolley tracks down the center, and with a ten-foot sidewalk for pedestrians on either side, for a total width of eighty feet.25
The new Hartford Bridge was dedicated on October 6–8, 1908, with three days of parades, concerts, and celebrations on both sides of the river, beginning with a reenactment of the arrival of Thomas Hooker and his party of English settlers, who could be watched crossing the river on a raft to meet the “Native Americans” waiting for them in Hartford. The celebrations were attended by some 200,000 residents and out-of-town visitors and concluded with a stunning fireworks display and a nighttime illumination of the bridge and river area.26
As the Hartford Bridge neared completion, the General Assembly enacted a law (1907) that freed the remaining toll bridges in the state that were still privately owned, as well as two new toll crossings that had been erected across the Connecticut River since the Hartford Bridge was first freed in 1889, one in Thompsonville in 1893, the other in Middletown in 1896. With this act, the long and torturous journey to free the last privately owned toll bridges in Connecticut came to an end.27
Sand hogs at work, excavating the piers for the stone arch bridge below the water of the Connecticut River. Spanning a Century: The Buckeley Bridge 1908–2008.
Courtesy of ConnDOT
Stone arch bridges are built around a wood-framed falsework, which is removed once the arch is completed. Spanning a Century: The Buckeley Bridge 1908–2008.
Courtesy of ConnDOT
With all private bridge crossings back under public control, the legislature turned its attention to the problem of replacing the state’s remaining ferry crossings with bridges especially along major trunk line routes, such as the lower post road to Boston. That ferry crossings could be problematic in the early days of the automobile can be seen in the experience of one driver and his companion who were on an auto tour of Southern New England in the summer of 1901. In his memoir of the adventure, Two Thousand Miles on an Automobile, the driver recorded their rather quaint experience crossing the Connecticut River on their way from Providence, Rhode Island, to New Haven:
At Lyme there is a very steep descent to the Connecticut River, which is a broad estuary at that point. The ferry is a primitive side-wheeler, which might carry two automobiles, but hardly more. It happened to be on the far shore. A small boy pointed out a long tinhorn hanging on a post, the hoarse blast of which summons the sleepy boat. There is no landing, and it seems impossible for our vehicle to get aboard; but the boat has a long, shovel-like nose projecting from the bow, which ran upon the shore, making a perfect gangplank. Carefully balancing the automobile in the center so as not to list the primitive craft, we made our way deliberately to the other side, the entire crew of two men—engineer and captain—coming out to talk with us.28
Such antiquated ferry service became more troublesome as time went on and the volume of traffic on the lower post road increased. In 1909, the legislature created the Saybrook & Lyme Connecticut River Commission, specifically to build a new bridge across the mouth of the river between Old Saybrook and Lyme. An existing steam-powered ferry had been handling traffic across the river for more than a decade, but with the volume of traffic crossing the river approaching fourteen thousand vehicles each year, a more modern, more permanent crossing was needed. The commission was authorized to build a low-level drawbridge across the river, to a maximum cost of $500,000, to be paid for with the general funds of the state. It was the first bridge to be built by and paid for by the state of Connecticut.29
The Saybrook Bridge was opened on August 24, 1911, by “a monster automobile parade” of five hundred cars. The design of the bridge was a Warren steel truss, 1,800 feet long, with a bascule-type draw near the western side of the span. Since there was some doubt at first as to where to position the draw section, the bridge’s chief engineer used the opportunity to conduct a unique experiment. “Two rowboats with red and white flags during the day and white lights at night were anchored at the edge of the proposed channel and all tug boat and steamboat captains using the river were asked to observe this channel and suggest to the engineer any changes desired by them in its location. The rowboats were shifted from time to time until the shipping interests using the river were satisfied with the location.” That way the final location of the draw span was determined.30
About this time, a new commissioner, Charles J. Bennett, replaced MacDonald as head of the state’s highway agency. At his urging—and with automobility now clearly here to stay—the one-man highway commission was reorganized into the Connecticut Highway Department (CHD), a bureaucratic agency more commensurate with the demands of the auto age. A deputy commissioner was hired to oversee all planning and construction, and the state was divided into seven construction districts, each with its own chief engineer. In addition, a superintendent of repairs was put in charge of maintenance, with each district assigned
