Old North Bridges
CONTINUITY IN CONCORD: THE SEVEN SUCCESSIVE OLD NORTH BRIDGES “History is an endless chain of inventive and spurious continuities, as in the case of Concord’s Old North Bridge1, Old North Bridge2, Old North Bridge3, Old North Bridge4, Old North Bridge5, Old North Bridge6, and Old North Bridge7.” — Austin Meredith 1635 October 6: The Reverend John Jones arrived in Boston, bringing a large number of settlers destined for the new inland plantation on the meadows of the Musketaquid River, to be called Concord. For the first 17 or 18 years of its existence, until 1653, Simon Willard would be functioning as the Town Clerk of this new inland town. Prior to the arrival of this group of English intrusives, the indigenous Americans had been utilizing as a seasonal campsite the ford of the Musketaquid (meaning “marsh-grass river”) or Concord River in the vicinity at which there is now the Battle Bridge or Old North Bridge. That river ford itself was presumably clear of vegetation and a part of the Great Fields.1 1. Remnants of roadbeds dating to this period before 1650 are still to be noted in the marsh west of the bridge. HDT WHAT? INDEX SEVEN BRIDGES SPANNING A FLOW OF CONTINUITY BRIDGE #1: THE VERY FIRST OLD NORTH BRIDGE (1654-1760) “History is an endless chain of inventive and spurious continuities, as in the case of Concord’s Old North Bridge1, Old North Bridge2, Old North Bridge3, Old North Bridge4, Old North Bridge5, Old North Bridge6, and Old North Bridge7.” — Austin Meredith 1654 In approximately this year the 1st bridge was constructed at the ford of the Concord River, where the Battle Bridge or Old North Bridge now stands, linking Concord to that district of Concord that would become Acton, and to Groton and the world beyond.
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