The Town Bridge

The Town Bridge. . , The Town Bridge , Ithiel Town patented the design for this bridge in 1820. Town was a New Haven-based pioneer in American architecture and engineering. He designed both Center Church and Trinity Church that still grace New Haven's Green. He built mansions on Hillhouse Avenue, artful, important buildings across Connecticut and in Boston, New York City, and statehouses in North Carolina and Indiana., This bridge displays Town's practical side. He asked Eli Whitney to comment on the novel timber truss design. Whitney endorsed its virtues: simplicity, lightness, strength, cheapness and durability., . The trusses could span impressive distances without expensive mid-stream abutments. , . Construction required workmen with basic joinery skills. , . The design required no long timbers which were difficult to acquire, mill, transport and handle. , . The bridges's covering sheltered the investment in its structural timbers and reduced maintenance costs., Town sold plans for bridges up and down the Atlantic coast. The fee, $2 per lineal foot of the finished bridge, earned an impressive return on the patent. In 1823, Whitney was the first to employ Town's patented design., You Are Not Here (The Bridge over time.) , The 1823 Bridge crossed the Mill River here behind the original much smaller dam 400 yards north of where you are standing That bridge aligned with the very straight path of the Hartford Turnpike, hence: "Hartford 32 miles.", In 1860, Eli Whitney's son built the much larger dam you see today. The 37 year old Town Bridge was in such good shape that the younger Whitney had it pulled north by oxen and rollers to connect the Hartford Turnpike across Davis Street. (In 1890, a flood damaged the venerable Town Bridge. In 1937, Frederic Oberlin designed a bridge suitable for automobile traffic. The bronze marker commemorates that bridge.), Students from Eli Whitney Technical School built this replica in 1979.