The Reynolds Bridge in

Thomaston, Connecticut Thomaston is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 7,442 at the 2020 census. The urban center of the town is the Thomaston census-designated place, with a population of 1,928 at the 2020 census. History The t ...

is an

open-spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...

concrete arch bridge carrying Waterbury Road (unsigned State Road 848) over the

Naugatuck River The Naugatuck River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Its waters carve out the Naugatuck River Valley in the wes ...

. Built in 1928, it is one of a small number of surviving open-spandrel bridges in the state. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2004.

Description and history

The Reynolds Bridge is located roughly midway between

Waterbury Waterbury is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut on the Naugatuck River, southwest of Hartford and northeast of New York City. Waterbury is the second-largest city in New Haven County, Connecticut. According to the 2020 US Census, in 202 ...

and the town center of Thomaston, just east of

Connecticut Route 8 Route 8 is a state highway in Connecticut that runs north–south from Bridgeport, through Waterbury, all the way to the Massachusetts state line where it continues as Massachusetts Route 8. Most of the highway is a four-lane freeway but t ...

's Exit 38. It is oriented northwest-southeast, and spans the Naugatuck River, the active railroad of the

Naugatuck Railroad Founded in 1996, the Naugatuck Railroad is a common carrier railroad owned by the Railroad Museum of New England and operated by Naugatuck Railroad on tracks leased by Naugatuck Railroad from the Connecticut Department of Transportation. The orig ...

, which run along the river's east bank, and a former right-of-way of a streetcar line which ran along the river's west bank. The bridge is a three-arch open spandrel concrete structure, with four concrete beam approach spans on either side. The main span is long, while the secondary arches are each ; the bridge has a total length of . The arches are joined by crossing struts, and vertical columns rise from the arch to support the road deck. The deck has a width of , with the sidewalks cantilevered outside the supporting arches. At the time of its construction in 1928, the state used open-spandrel design was used for the longest concrete bridge crossings, and this was the longest designed by the Connecticut State Highway Department up to that time. and The Cornwall Bridge, built a few years later over the

Housatonic River The Housatonic River ( ) is a river, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United S ...

, has a longer span. At the time of its National Register listing in 2004, it was one of six open-spandrel bridges in the state.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut Bridges completed in 1928 Thomaston, Connecticut Bridges in Litchfield County, Connecticut National Register of Historic Places in Litchfield County, Connecticut Concrete bridges in the United States Open-spandrel deck arch bridges in the United States

Description and history

See also

References