Bridge No. 455

Last updated
Bridge No. 455
SuffieldCT Bridge455.jpg
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Location CT 159 at Stony Brook, Suffield, Connecticut
Coordinates 41°57′30″N72°37′40″W / 41.95833°N 72.62778°W / 41.95833; -72.62778 Coordinates: 41°57′30″N72°37′40″W / 41.95833°N 72.62778°W / 41.95833; -72.62778
Area less than one acre
Built 1929 (1929)
Built by Connecticut Highway Department
Architectural style open-spandrel concrete arch
NRHP reference # 04001094 [1]
Added to NRHP September 29, 2004

Bridge No. 455 is a historic open spandrel concrete bridge, carrying Connecticut Route 159 across Stony Brook in southern Suffield, Connecticut. Completed in 1929, it is one of six surviving open spandrel concrete bridges in the state. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. [1]

Suffield, Connecticut Town in Connecticut, United States

Suffield is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. It had once been within the boundaries of Massachusetts. The town is located in the Connecticut River Valley with the town of Enfield neighboring to the east. In 1900, 3,521 people lived in Suffield; as of the 2010 census, the population was 15,735. The town center is a census-designated place listed as Suffield Depot in U.S. Census records.

National Register of Historic Places federal list of historic sites in the United States

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. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.

Contents

Description and history

Bridge No. 455 is located in southeastern Suffield, carrying Connecticut Route 159 across Stony Brook. Route 159 is the major north-south route through eastern Suffield, running roughly parallel to the Connecticut River. The bridge is set across a steep and rocky ravine. It is 259 feet (79 m) long, with a main span measuring 132 feet (40 m), and nine concrete girder approach spans. The main span is an open spandrel structure of reinforced concrete, whose arch has a rise of 34 feet (10 m). The bridge deck is 55 feet (17 m) above the typical water level of the stream below. The arch ribs are 4 feet (1.2 m) thick at the base and 2.5 feet (0.76 m) at the apex, and are joined to the bridge deck by a series of tapered square columns. The roadway is two lanes wide. [2]

Connecticut River river in the New England region of the United States

The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for 406 miles (653 km) through four states. It rises at the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges at Long Island Sound. Its watershed encompasses five U.S. states and one Canadian province, 11,260 square miles (29,200 km2) via 148 tributaries, 38 of which are major rivers. It produces 70% of Long Island Sound's fresh water, discharging at 19,600 cubic feet (560 m3) per second.

The bridge was completed in 1929 as part of a major initiative by the state Department of Transportation to improve the infrastructure of its main highways. At the time Route 159 was the principal north-south route between Hartford and Springfield, Massachusetts, and is still a major secondary road, having been supplanted by Interstate 91 for most traffic. The state used open spandrel structures over ravines and for exceptionally long spans, where significant cost savings were achieved by reducing materials costs. The state also declared a preference for the bridges for their aesthetics, and used them with some frequency. There are now only six such bridges left in the state. [2]

Hartford, Connecticut capital of Connecticut

Hartford is the capital city of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. The city is nicknamed the "Insurance Capital of the World", as it hosts many insurance company headquarters and is the region's major industry. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford area of Connecticut. Census estimates since the 2010 United States Census have indicated that Hartford is the fourth-largest city in Connecticut, behind the coastal cities of Bridgeport, New Haven, and Stamford.

Springfield, Massachusetts City in Massachusetts

Springfield is a city in the state of Massachusetts, United States, and the seat of Hampden County. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern Mill River. As of the 2010 Census, the city's population was 153,060. As of 2017, the estimated population was 154,758, making it the third-largest city in Massachusetts, the fourth-most populous city in New England after Boston, Worcester, and Providence, and the 12th-most populous in the Northeastern United States. Metropolitan Springfield, as one of two metropolitan areas in Massachusetts, had a population of 692,942 as of 2010.

Interstate 91 (I-91) is an Interstate Highway in the New England region of the United States. It provides the primary north–south thoroughfare in the western part of the region. The Interstate's southern end is in New Haven, Connecticut, at Interstate 95 and its northern end is at Derby Line, Vermont, a village in the town of Derby at the Canadian border, where it continues past the Derby Line-Rock Island Border Crossing as Autoroute 55. I-91 is the longest of three Interstate highways whose entire route is located within the New England states and is also the only primary (two-digit) Interstate Highway in New England to intersect all five of the others that run through the region. The largest cities along its route are New Haven, Connecticut, Hartford, Connecticut, Springfield, Massachusetts, Brattleboro, Vermont, White River Junction, Vermont, and St. Johnsbury, Vermont in order from south to north.

See also

National Register of Historic Places listings in Hartford County, Connecticut Wikimedia list article

This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Hartford County, Connecticut.

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References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 "NRHP nomination for Bridge No. 455". National Park Service. Retrieved 2017-04-17.