Canal Street Railroad Bridge - Blackstone MA
Posted by: nomadwillie
N 42° 01.013 W 071° 32.438
19T E 289638 N 4654774
The present bridge, like that over Main Street, was constructed in 1917 by the American Bridge Company.
Waymark Code: WM143FV
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Date Posted: 04/07/2021
Views: 2
The 109-foot long Canal Street Bridge consists of two primary deck plate girder stringers with cross webbing. The girders of the main span over Canal Street are 6'-1" deep; those over the sidewalks are 3'-3" deep. A single 100-foot span girder would have required a 9-foot deep girder, lessening the clearance over the road to 16 feet, in addition to the added cost.
In the early 1850s, as he began to extend the railroad west (toward New York City), he constructed wooden truss bridges to carry the line over Main and Canal Streets. In 1883, these were removed, substituting iron bridges during the fall and winter of that year. Under a decree of the county commissioners, the company was allowed to erect piers between the sidewalks and roadways on both streets. This allowed the extraordinary 64-degree skew of the bridge. The present bridge, like that over Main Street, was constructed in 1917 by the American Bridge Company.
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