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Old Red Bridge

1878 establishments in Massachusetts1942 disestablishments in MassachusettsBridges completed in 1878Bridges in Franklin County, MassachusettsBridges over the Connecticut River
Demolished bridges in the United StatesDemolished buildings and structures in MassachusettsGill, MassachusettsMontague, MassachusettsNRHP infobox with nocatSuspension bridges in the United States
Suspension Bridge, Turners Falls, MA
Suspension Bridge, Turners Falls, MA

Old Red Bridge, originally known as Red Bridge and the Upper Suspension Bridge, was a cable-stayed suspension bridge crossing the Connecticut River between the town of Gill with the village of Turners Falls in Franklin County, Massachusetts. The bridge opened in 1878 and was demolished in 1942. An anchorage remaining from the bridge was spared from demolition in 1985 when Gill residents voted to preserve the structure, which contained rare armored mud balls that had been discovered by a local geology professor. Old Red Bridge was subsequently designated as a state historic civil engineering landmark and its anchorage is a contributing structure within the Riverside Village Historic District.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Old Red Bridge (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Old Red Bridge
Riverview Drive,

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Latitude Longitude
N 42.6075 ° E -72.549444444444 °
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Riverview Drive

Riverview Drive
01376
Massachusetts, United States
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Suspension Bridge, Turners Falls, MA
Suspension Bridge, Turners Falls, MA
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Turners Falls Canal
Turners Falls Canal

The Turners Falls Canal, also historically known as the Montague Canal, was a canal along the Connecticut River in Montague, Massachusetts. It was reconstructed in 1869. The canal was first completed in 1798 by the Proprietors of the Upper Locks and Canals on Connecticut River under a charter granted on February 23, 1792, by the Massachusetts legislature and Governor John Hancock. After completing the South Hadley Canal, many of the earlier Proprietors turned their attention to extending navigation to regions above Turners Falls. Construction work included a log-crib dam extending across the Connecticut River at a place called "Great Falls" (now Turners Falls), a canal 2.5 miles (4 kilometres) long and 20 feet (6 metres) wide from there to a point downstream near the Deerfield River, and a towpath on its east shore. The canal had ten locks as finally completed. Upstream a dam and single-lock canal near the mouth of the Millers River allowed barges to bypass the French King rapids. The canals were opened for business in 1798 and by 1802 supported regular freight traffic by boat from Long Island Sound to Bellows Falls, Vermont. The canal was profitable for 30 years, returning 4% dividend to its investors, and even in 1826 briefly considered as part of a larger system from Boston to the Hudson River, but within a few decades railroads had become the favored means of transport, and it eventually closed to navigation in 1856. However, in 1869 it was reconstructed, along with the Turner Falls Dam, to provide waterpower for both existing and newly planned mills. This reconstructed power canal followed a somewhat different route from its predecessor, and served as the origin of today's village of Turners Falls.