India Point Railroad Bridge was a

swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravity, about which the swing span (turning span) can then pi ...

which spanned the

Seekonk River The Seekonk River is a tidal extension of the Providence River in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It flows approximately 8 km (5 mi). The name may be derived from an Algonquian word for skunk, or for black goose. The river is home to t ...

, connecting the

City A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

of Providence,

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

at India Point to the

of East Providence at Watchemoket. It was last used in 1974, and the swing span was removed in 2001 leaving only two fixed

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembl ...

spans. The remaining spans were ultimately removed in 2023.

History

The original structure was a

covered bridge A covered bridge is a timber-truss bridge with a roof, decking, and siding, which in most covered bridges create an almost complete enclosure. The purpose of the covering is to protect the wooden structural members from the weather. Uncovered woo ...

built in 1835 by Thomas Hassard for the

Boston and Providence Railroad The Boston and Providence Railroad was a railroad company in the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island which connected its namesake cities. It opened in two sections in 1834 and 1835 - one of the first rail lines in the United States - with a ...

. He had been mentored by Colonel Stephen H. Long, inventor of the Long truss. It was the first interstate railroad bridge built in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The bridge had a manually operated draw consisting of two parts located on the East Providence side of the bridge. In order to let a vessel pass, the eastern part had to be moved northward and the western part was moved into the vacated space. This draw was replaced in 1858 by one resting on a turntable providing a gap of . In 1866, due to the bridge's

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s being deemed unreliable, work began on a new bridge adjacent to the existing one that was to have a draw of at least . This bridge used a

Howe truss A Howe truss is a truss bridge consisting of chords, verticals, and diagonals whose vertical members are in tension and whose diagonal members are in compression. The Howe truss was invented by William Howe in 1840, and was widely used as a bridg ...

and was built by Daniel Harris and Richard Hawkins, who held the

patent rights A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

for this design in Southern

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

. On 20 February 1868, a successful test run was made, and the main track was connected to the new bridge the following day. View from Fort Hill, showing four bridges across the Seekonk River, Providence, RI

View from Fort Hill, showing four bridges across the Seekonk River, Providence, RI

In 1882, an iron swing section replaced the manually operated one. This provided a channel of about . However, a curve in the channel made passage through it difficult. The remaining covered part of the bridge was replaced with a steel swing span in 1902 by Boston Bridge Works giving it a channel of approximately and aligning the draw with that of the 1885

Washington Bridge The Washington Bridge is a -long arch bridge over the Harlem River in New York City between the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. The crossing, opened in 1888, connects 181st Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Washington Heights, Manhattan, w ...

At the time, the bridge was known as the "Seekonk River Bridge" but was eventually renamed to match its predecessors. to the north. Finally, the iron swing section was replaced with fixed

pony truss A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements (typically straight) may be stressed from tension, compression, or ...

es in 1903. Both of these sections were built around the existing spans, so that rail and water traffic would not be interrupted. During peak working hours,

train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often ...

s could cross the bridge at an average rate of one every four minutes.

Removal

The bridge continued to operate until 1974. After its closing, the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mu ...

eventually determined the bridge to be a navigational hazard. In May 1990, they threatened to fine the City of Providence US$1000 for each day beyond one year from then that the bridge was neither removed nor illuminated. Though the deadline passed, the Coast Guard delayed imposing any fines until at least 1993, when Federal money was to be made available for the bridge's removal. Under the plan, the Federal government and city were each to pay US$250,000 towards the cost of removing it. However, this plan was not executed. Also, the Water Resources Acts of 1986 and 1996 had each approved plans for removing the bridge, but these plans failed to come to fruition as well. On 18 December 2000, the Providence

City Council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

approved the transfer of the bridge to the Federal Government. The

United States Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

then advertised to give the bridge to any organization that could demonstrate a suitable disposition for it. No claims were received, so demolition was scheduled to begin in October 2001. By then, the estimated removal cost had increased to US$668,690 which also had been agreed to be split evenly by the Army Corps and the city. At the end of December 2001, the swing span had been dismantled. The final step was to remove the concrete platform measuring in diameter that supported the swing section. As of February 2020, only the two fixed truss sections on the East Providence side remained. However, in the summer of 2019, the East Providence City Council had passed a resolution asking for federal help in removing these remaining sections. The Army Corps of Engineers responded by saying there is money in the fiscal year 2020 budget for an environmental review and design to remove it but not for the actual demolition costs. Removal of the remainder of the bridge began in March 2023. The spans were removed and sent to a scrapyard at the Port of Providence for scrapping the following month. India_Point_Railroad_Bridge_removal

Notes

References

External links

Information

* *Article about th
Providence, Warren and Bristol Railroad
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*Solicitation fo

Images

*
Flooding
from the

1938 New England hurricane The 1938 New England Hurricane (also referred to as the Great New England Hurricane and the Long Island Express Hurricane) was one of the deadliest and most destructive tropical cyclones to strike Long Island, New York, and New England. The storm ...

Panoramic view A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...

of th
bridge
{{Rhode Island railroads, state=collapsed Railroad bridges in Rhode Island Bridges in Providence County, Rhode Island Swing bridges in the United States Demolished bridges in the United States Bridges completed in 1903 Buildings and structures demolished in 2001 Former railway bridges in the United States Historic American Engineering Record in Rhode Island 1903 establishments in Rhode Island Truss bridges in the United States Steel bridges in the United States