The Division Street Bridge is an historic roadway and sidewalk stone

arch bridge An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its structural load, loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either si ...

Pawtucket, Rhode Island Pawtucket ( ) is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 75,604 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making the city the fourth-largest in the state. Pawtucket borders Providence, Rhode Island, Prov ...

, carrying Division Street over the

Seekonk River The Seekonk River is a tidal extension of the Providence River in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It flows approximately 5 km (3 mi). The name may be derived from an Algonquian word for skunk or for black goose. The river is home to ...

. The structure was built in 1875–1877 at a cost of

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

$95,000. It is a nine-span stone and brick bridge with a total length of about , making it the "finest and longest" stone arch bridge in the state. It is said to be a

symbol A symbol is a mark, Sign (semiotics), sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, physical object, object, or wikt:relationship, relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by cr ...

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic, and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, mother of ...

of the unity of the two neighborhoods, which are divided by the river, coming together as the Town of Pawtucket. The bridge was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1983. Although it may be "functionally obsolete" relative to traffic patterns and in need of repairs, it is considered to be architecturally and historically significant.

Design

The Division Street Bridge is a nine-span stone and brick structure, with a total length of about . Each of its spans consists of a segmented arch of about in length. The road bed is wide, and there are

sidewalk A sidewalk (North American English), pavement (British English, South African English), or footpath (Hiberno-English, Irish English, Indian English, Australian English, New Zealand English) is a path along the side of a road. Usually constr ...

s on either side. The mean height of the bridge above the water is . The piers of the bridge are constructed of coursed

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

and the

voussoir A voussoir ( UK: ; US: ) is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, which is used in building an arch or vault.“Voussoir, N., Pronunciation.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, June 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/7553486115. Acces ...

s are dressed granite with single keystones. The

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 fil ...

s, the space between the arches, are filled with mortared granite rubble, and the arch barrels are constructed with an estimated 550,000 bricks. The original roadway was made of

granite block Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

s, the seams of which were filled with

tar Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black b ...

, but this has been modified with modern asphalt paving and with the piers being modified with the addition of

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

sheathing for the river piers. The iron walkways, produced by Crowell and Sisson, project over both the sides of the bridge with iron brackets. Constructed from 1875 to 1877 at a cost of USD $95,000, the details of the bridge's construction and its architect are unknown. A contemporary account states that the need for the bridge was first proposed in 1871, but it wasn't until a town meeting on March 1, 1875, that it would be decided upon in a vote. A commission to oversee the project included C. B. Farnsworth, William T. Adams, and William R. Walker, and the contract was awarded to Horace Foster. A local architect, William R. Walker was on the town's committee, but his role in the design or appearance of the bridge is unknown. Other figures involved in the construction of the bridge include Cushing and Company, later known as Cushing and Shedd, consulting engineers, and Horace Foster was the general contractor. Though it originally began as a contract for US$71,000, the bridge would increase in costs to US$95,000 due to the changes that were made. The granite was sourced from the towns of

Sterling, Connecticut Sterling is a town in Windham County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Northeastern Connecticut Planning Region. The population was 3,578 at the 2020 census. The rural town is home to two villages: Oneco (named for Oneco, Sa ...

, and

Westerly, Rhode Island Westerly is a New England town, town on the Coast, southwestern coastline of Washington County, Rhode Island, Washington County, Rhode Island, United States, first settled by English colonists in 1661, and incorporated as a List of municipalitie ...

. Repairs for the bridge listed in the 1906 annual report recorded US$15.82 for unspecified work. Though listed as only a footnote, repairs to the bridge were made in 1918.

Current state

The Division Street Bridge was last rehabilitated in 1985, but it remains open under no restrictions after its inspection in May 2012. Data from the

National Bridge Inventory The National Bridge Inventory (NBI) is a database, compiled by the Federal Highway Administration, with information on all bridges and tunnels in the United States that have roads passing above or below them. That is similar to the grade-crossing ...

lists the

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

and substructure as in fair condition. The scour condition is critical, but the recommended work is rehabilitation of the structure. The report estimates the cost of repairs to be US$9,834,000. A collection of reports dating back to 1995 lists the bridge as "functionally obsolete" for its current traffic requirements. A 2006 traffic report listed the bridge as carrying 21,900 vehicles daily. In 2007 the historic bridge saw an increase in traffic, as a heavy truck detour during the reconstruction of the nearby

I-95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, north to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the ...

Pawtucket Bridge. In 2012, the Pawtucket River Bridge reopened without weight restrictions to northbound traffic. The Division Street Bridge is used as part of a detour in the event of closure of the I-95 Pawtucket River bridge. Loads on the route which goes over the bridge have twice been reduced, and are now limited to 18 tons to help preserve the bridge.

Significance

The Division Street Bridge is architecturally significant as the longest stone

in Rhode Island and historically significant as a symbolic gesture to link and unify the two rapidly growing neighborhoods on Pawtucket Falls under the newly formed Town of Pawtucket. The bridge was listed on the

in 1983.

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

External links

* * * * * {{National Register of Historic Places Bridges completed in 1877 Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island Industrial archaeological sites in the United States Buildings and structures in Pawtucket, Rhode Island National Register of Historic Places in Pawtucket, Rhode Island 1877 establishments in Rhode Island Bridges in Providence County, Rhode Island Stone arch bridges in the United States