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 loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either side. A viaduct (a ...

Pawtucket, Rhode Island Pawtucket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 75,604 at the 2020 census, making the city the fourth-largest in the state. Pawtucket borders Providence and East Providence to the south, Central Fa ...

, 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 8 km (5 mi). The name may be derived from an Algonquian word for skunk, or for black goose. The river is home ...

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

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

$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, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most c ...

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 United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

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), footpath in Australia, India, New Zealand and Ireland, or footway, is a path along the side of a street, highway, terminals. Usually constructed of concrete, pavers, brick, stone ...

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 ( 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 und ...

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitr ...

and the

voussoir A voussoir () is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, which is used in building an arch or vault. Although each unit in an arch or vault is a voussoir, two units are of distinct functional importance: the keystone and the springer. The ...

s are dressed granite with single

keystone Keystone or key-stone or ''variation'', may refer to: * Keystone (architecture), a central stone or other piece at the apex of an arch or vault * Keystone (cask), a fitting used in ale casks Business * Keystone Law, a full-service law firm * D ...

s. 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 fill ...

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 viscosity, viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic matter, organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. ...

, but this has been modified with modern

asphalt paving Asphalt concrete (commonly called asphalt, blacktop, or pavement in North America, and tarmac, bitumen macadam, or rolled asphalt in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland) is a composite material commonly used to surface roads, parkin ...

and with the piers being modified with the addition of reinforced concrete 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 William Russell Walker (born 25 May 1944) has been a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) since 2002. Walker was born to J. Harris and Beth Russell Walker in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, and raised i ...

, 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 population was 3,578 at the 2020 census. History The town was named after John Sterling, an early settler. Sterling was incorporated in 1794 following approval of the state A ...

and

Westerly, Rhode Island Westerly is a town on the southwestern shoreline of Washington County, Rhode Island, first settled by English colonists in 1661 and incorporated as a municipality in 1669. It is a beachfront community on the south shore of the state with a popula ...

. 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 US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadi ...

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