March 2011

Deck Bridge Stone Pier

This thing reminds me of the "obelisk" from the movie "2001 - A Space Odyssey" when you stand next to it. Now that it's readily accessible it made a great time to do some measurements. It is 21.5' wide and 7' thick at the base. I wasn't brave enough to climb to the top to measure the taper. This pier dates back to around 1882 so it's over 130 years old. I believe it had stability issues in the later years of the railroad... the ET put in a concrete pad and a heavy wood beam trestle bent to supplement the stone support. The pier on the opposite side of the river, originally a stone twin of this one, was sheathed in concrete following damage sustained during the 1901 May Tide flood. There's a great story with lots of photos and a scale drawing of this bridge in the Fall/Winter 2004 issue of the "Stemwinder". If you'd like to find out more, but don't have access to that issue, it's available here at this link.