"Our county and its people" - A history of Hampden County, Massachusetts. (1902) (14596561980)

Identifier: ourcountyitspeop01cope (find matches)

Title: "Our county and its people" : A history of Hampden County, Massachusetts.

Year: 1902 (1900s)

Authors: Copeland, Alfred Minott, 1830- ed

Subjects: Hampden County (Mass.) -- History Hampden County (Mass.) -- Biography

Publisher: Boston : Century Memorial Pub. Co

Contributing Library: UMass Amherst Libraries

Digitizing Sponsor: UMass Amherst Libraries

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the bridge fell intothe river and Avas demolished. It Avas an unfortunate eAent andAvas regarded as a public calamity, for the bridge had come tobe regarded as an indispensable convenience to travel betweenBoston and Albany. The cause of its destruction is said to havebeen the heavily loaded army Avagons used during the Avar of1812, but the main fault lay in the unnecessarily heavy Aveightof the bridge itself. In a measure its construction Avas an ex-periment, the builders having no precedent to guide them andonly their oavu imperfect knoAAdedge of bridge engineering forthe regulation of their Avork. Had the bridge been only halfas lieaAy, it probably Avould not have fallen. The loss of the first bridge, hoAveAer, did not discourage thecompany, although the purses of the stockholders had beendrained in its construction. They at once set about rebuilding,and in Jainiary, 1815, the legislature passed an act authorizingthe company to raise a fund of ^^20,000 by lottery. This Avas ( 166 )

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be X 6C 73 CQ OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE done, and on October 1. 1816. a new bridge was opened fortravel. It cost about $22,000. In )\Iarch, 1818, the second bridge was swept away by highwater, only the abutments and two piers on the west side surviv-ing the flood. This second loss, following so close upon thefirst, Avas a heavy blow to the company, but evidently the man-agement was not disheartened. Again, however, they had re-course to the legislature, and by an act passed February 18, 1819.the managers of the Springfield bridge lottery were directedto continue their drawings until they had raised the sura author-ized by the act of 1813; and the act further authorized the man-agers to draw one class by which they may raise $10,000 forthe benefit of the company, on condition that the company givea bond to rebuild the bridge within one year from June 1, 1819. Agreeable to the provisions of the act, and availing itself ofthe lottery enterprise, the company built a third bridge—the old

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