The Starr Mill Road Bridge is a historic bridge in
Middletown, Connecticut
Middletown is a city in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. Located along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, 16 miles (25.749504 km) south of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. Middletown is the largest city in the L ...
. It is a single span Warren through truss bridge, spanning the
Coginchaug River
The Coginchaug River in Connecticut, with a watershed including 39 sq mi of forests, pastures, farmland, industrial, and commercial areas, is the main tributary of the Mattabesset River. It is 16.1 mi long, and the river flows northwards f ...
near the
Starr Mill complex on the west bank of the river. Built in 1927 by the Berlin Construction Company, it is one of a shrinking number of period metal truss bridges in the state. 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 1993.
It is closed to all forms of passage.
Description and history
The Starr Mill Road Bridge is located in western Middletown, spanning the Coginchaug River just below (east of) the Starr Mill dam. It is accessible via Middlefield Road (
Connecticut Route 157) on the south, and Beverly Heights, the mill access road, on the north. The bridge is long with a roadway wide, and stands about above the river on concrete abutments, which were poured over rubble abutments of earlier bridges. The bridge deck and structure are in deteriorating condition.
The bridge was built by the city in 1927, as a part of a bridge-building program in the outer portions of the city. The bridge was constructed by the
Berlin Construction Company, one of Connecticut's leading bridge makers of the early 20th century. The company was created by principals of the
Berlin Iron Bridge Company
The Berlin Iron Bridge Company was a Berlin, Connecticut, Berlin, Connecticut company that built Bridge, iron bridges and buildings that were supported by iron. It is credited as the architect of numerous bridges and buildings now listed on the U ...
after that company was merged into the
American Bridge Company
The American Bridge Company is a heavy/civil construction firm that specializes in building and renovating bridges and other large, complex structures. Founded in 1900, the company is headquartered in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsb ...
, and continued to be a major regional supplier of bridge trusses until they were broadly supplanted in road engineering practices by steel girder bridges. The bridge has an unusual combination of riveted and bolted joints, an indication of the difficulty of performing riveting in the field.
[
]
See also
*
*
References
External links
Starr Mill Road Bridge
{{National Register of Historic Places
Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
Buildings and structures in Middletown, Connecticut
Bridges completed in 1927
Bridges in Middlesex County, Connecticut
National Register of Historic Places in Middlesex County, Connecticut
Warren truss bridges in the United States
1927 establishments in Connecticut