Mount Hope Bridge
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____________ I !_ Form No. 10-300 Rev. 10-741 INTERIOR UNRED STATES DEPA RTMENT OF THE NPS USE ONLY NATIONAL PARK SERVICE RECEIVED NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY-- NOMINATION FORM IPLATE ENTERED SEE INSTRUCTIONS IN HOWTO COMPLErENATIONAL REGISTER FORMS TYPE ALL ENTRIES-- COMPLETE APPLICABLE SECTIONS NAME HISTORIC Mount Hope Bridge AND/OR COMMON Mount Hope Bridge LOCATION STREET&NUMBER over Narragansett Ba Stae Route 114 FOKPUBLICATION DISTRICT CITY. TOWN CONGRESSIONAL Bristol Portsmouth ._.VICINITYOF 1 Fernand St. Germain / CODE STATE CODE COUNTY Rhndp TQ11flr CLASSIFIGATION CATEGORY OWNERSHIP STATUS PRESENT USE DISTRICT PUBLIC . MUSEUM ._BUILDINGISI PRIVATE STRUCTURE L.BOTH IN PROGRESS RESIDENCE PUBLIC ACQUISITION ACCESSIBLE .ENTERTAINMENT / PROCESS RESTRICTED CONSIDERED .XYES: UNRESTRICTEO X_TRANSPORTATION ._NO MILITARY OWNER OF PROPERTY NAME Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority STREET& NUMBER P. 0. Box 437 CITY. TOWN - STATE Jamestown Rhode Island, 02835 LOCATION OF LEGAL DESCRIPTION COURTHOUSE. REGISTRY OP DEEDS,ETC. Bristol Town Hall Portsmouth Town Hall - STREET& NUMBER - - 10 Court Strt 2201 Pact Miin Pnid CITY. TOWN - . STATE - Bristol Portsmouth. Rhode Island DREPRESENTATION IN EXISTING SURVEYS - TITLE - New England, An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial DATE Sites 1974 FEDERAL LOCAL DEPOSITORY FOR SURVEYRECORDS Historic American Engineering Recorcl,National Park Service CITY. TOWN STATE Washing ton D. C. 20240 see continuation sheet #1 No 10-300a Re 10-74 - UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF TUE INTERIOR ONLY. FOR-NPS USE . : . NATIONAL PARK SERVICE RECEIVED NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY--NOMINATION FORM DATEENTERED. .. CONTINUATION SHEET 1 ITEM NUMBER 6 - PAGE 2 Title: Bristol In-Depth Survey Date: 1975 State Depository for - Survey Records: Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission 150 Benefit Street City, Town: Providence, Rhode Island 02903 ________ DESCRIPTION CONDITION CHECK ONE CHECK ONE SXCELLENT _DETERIORATED AUNALTERED XORIGINAL SITE _G000 - _RUINS _ALTEREO _MOVED DATE________ _FAIR ....UNEXPOSED DESCRIBE THE PRESENT AND ORIGINAL IF KNOWN.PHYSICAL APPEARANCE The Mount Elope Bridge, designed in 1927 by Robinson and - Steinman, and built under their supervision in the following two years, is a prize-winning suspension bridge over Narragansett Bay between Providence and Newport, Rhode Island. With a main span of 1200 feet, the Mount Hope Bridge, until surpassed only in this past decade, was the longest suspension bridge in New England. Origin- ally built for the Mount Hope Bridge Company as a privately owned toll bridge, it was purchased by the State of Rhode Island in 1955 and is now administered by the Rhode-Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority, which succeeded the Mount Hope Bridge Authority in 1964. Historically, the Mount Hope Bridge links the Providence Plantations, settled by Roger Williams in 1636, and the Island of Rhode Island, originally called Aquidneck, to the south, which was settled by John Clarke in 1638. The present bridge is located at H the point of narrowest water gap between the present-day towns of Bristol and Portsmouth, the site of what has been an important transportation link since Colonial times. At nearby Mount Hope, now located within *the township of Bristol, the Wampanoag Indian chief, King Philip, planned the Indian attacks that in 1675 and 1676 devastated the villages of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Tradition indicates that the first ferry was established between Bristol, which until 1747 was a part of Plymouth Colony, and the Island of Rhode Island in about the year 1676, preceding the date P of the settlement of the town of Bristol by four years. John Tripp of Portsmouth was the first ferryman, taking Captain Benjamin Church and his men to the mainland at various times to engage in the Indian uprising that finally resulted in the death of King Philip. Later, John Borden and Ralph Earle, two of the early settlers of or row Portsmouth, served as ferrymen at a time when simple sail j. -. boats plied the route. During the Revolution, the ferry provided transportation for many notables of the American Army, including Washington, LaFayette, and Rochambeau. About 1824 a boat propelled by horses was put into service on the line. The animals kept the boat in motion by walking on a rounded platform, which through a system of cogs and shafts, actuated the paddlewheels. This ferry was operated by an organized, incorporated company; the machine which propelled the boat by the aid of horses being a patented device. Sailboats also continued in use as ferries at this time, as rough weather and/or ice often hindered the horse-powered vessel. See continuation sheet :#1A a rm No ‘D-300a Hi.v 10-741 UNITED STAFFS DEPARFMLNIOI:T lIE INTERIOR FOR NPS USE ONLY NATIONAL PARK SERVICE F RECEIVED NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY-- NOMINATION FORM ,pTE ENTERED CONTINUATION SHEET 1A ITEM NUMBER 7 PAGE 2 In the early 1840’s the Fall River Iron Works Company established a steamboat line between-Fall River and Providence, with stops at Bristol Ferry on the Portsmouth side and at the foot of State Street in Bristol proper. By mid 1840’s, the horse powered ferries had ceased to be profitable and were removed from the line. In 1845, - the steamboat Bradford Durfee was placed into service, followed later by the Canonicus and the RichardBorden. -The steamboats of the Fall River-Providence-Newport line ceased to make stops at Bristol Ferry at the northern end of the Island of Rhode Island about 1903. At that time or shortly thereafter, the Newport and Providence Railway Company placed the steamer Sagamore on the line from new slips loca ted at the foot of Thames Street near Constitution Street in Bristol and at Bristol Perry on the Aquidneck side. This formed a continuous transportation link in Bristol at the Constitution Street Depot of the New York, New Haven, and l-lartford Railroad, where trains could be boarded for Providence and points beyond, and with the electric trolley to Newport on Aquidneck. In 1905, the steamboat Bristol was placed in service. Later, when the trolleys were succeeded by buses, the Bristol terminus was again relocated to the original- location at the end of the present Ferry Road. By the 1920’s many automobiles were being carried over the revived shorter route. Starting in 1927, the Conanicut alternated with the Bristo1 on the ferry line until the opening of the Mount Hope Bridge in 1929 ended the ferry service. - .The original resolution sponsored by William L. Connery of Bristol in the Rhode Island General Assembly on March 9, 1920, call ing for a joint committee to investigate the desirability of locating a bridge between Bristol and Portsmouth, was born of a relatively unimportant incident - the occasional tardiness of legislators from Newport County at sessions of the General Assembly. During periods when the severe freezing of Bristol Harbor prohibited the ferry from making its run, these legislators had to travel by train through Fall River and thence to Providence, making them late for the sessions of the General Assembly. However, after an investigation of the proposed endeavour, it was felt that it was not in the best financial interests of Rhode Island to finance so large a project at that time. see continuation sheet #2 c.-nNo. 1-300a Key 10-741 - UNITED STAFFS DEPARTMENTOF THE INTERIOR FOR NPSUSE ONLY - NATIONAL PARK SERVICE RECEIVED NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY-- NOMINATION FORM IDATE ENTERED CONTI NUATION SHEET 2 ITEM NUMBER 7 PAGE 3 Colonel Samuel Pomeroy Colt, a nephew of the arms inventor and founder of the Industrial National Bank, was one of the first of Rhode Island’s leading citizens who looked upon the Mount Hope Toll Bridge as a feasible proposition that should be constructed by the State, and cited many economic advantages that would accrue to the whole State. By the mid 1920’s, the tremendous development of vehicular traffic coupled with an unusually rapid influx of tourist traffic from the west into New England, and the increasing need for a direct communications link between the two major cities of the State, finally culminated in a proposal by Representative Herbert Smith of Newport to place the proposition on the ballot as a State-financed endeavour in the autumn of 1926. As the Island of Rhode Island was the only area in the State to show an increase in the number of farms between 1920 and 1925, it was further felt that the benefit of the surpluses produced should accrue to Rhode Island proper rather than the nearby areas of Massachusetts to the east. It was argued that the public was in fact indirectly paying for the inconvenience of the ferry in the form of tolls; lost time, and/or the cost of travel over the eight-and-a-half mile longer route between Providence- and Newport via Fall River. In 1926, the Mount Hope Bridge Commission was formed with Herbert W. Smith as Chairman. Under State Highway Engineer George H. Henderson and Bridge Engineer Daniel 0. Cargill, a cantilever design was proposed. Originally planned to accommodate a forty foot-wide roadway with sidewalks to either side, the initial design further more provided for the possibility of the later addition of a lower deck to carry either two additional lanes of traffic or railroad trackage. Even though this initial proposal for a high level bridge was located in the most economical position and was particularly adapted to the existing approaching streets, the Rhode Island law makers in early 1927