https://suncommunitynews.com/news/89542/barber-asks-fellow-supervisors-to-save-historic-bridge/

Thank you to the Sun Community News & Printing for writing an article our our Historic Bridges in Keeseville. A lot has happened since the meeting in Essex County, and we thought we would add some supplemental information to this article. Thank you to Clayton Barber for fighting the good fight!-There ARE two remaining bridges built by Murray, Dougan and Company. The other bridge in Point Pleasant PA is a completely different type of bridge. The Byram Road Bridge is a single span pony pratt truss bridge that crosses a small brook. See it here: https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=pennsylvania/pointpleasant/

Our bridge is a double span metal pratt truss bridge that is a ‘through truss’ design. It’s portal, design elements, and the over head beams making it a ‘through truss’ make this the last remaining ‘through truss’ type in the world built by this company. See it here: https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=newyork/keesevilleupper/

-Murray, Dougal and Company built railroad cars. Then they made custom bridges in factories. This factory eventually burned down. The rail company was saved, but the bridge making business never resumed. This makes these bridges historical, and very rare.-The Iron from this bridge was provided by the Phoenix Iron and Steel Mill in Phoenixville PA. This company made 1200 civil war cannons. After the war they melted these cannons down and used the iron to make bridges. It is very likely that this bridge contains iron from repurposed civil war cannons, but it is difficult to prove.

In Regards to Essex County-

All County Representatives have been invited multiple times for a walking tour over the last year. A few have responded, but most have not. There is one supervisor (whom I have a lot of respect for) that didn’t know where the bridges were in April 2007, and he said again in April 2021 that he does not know the location of this bridge. (It’s in the meeting minutes) I’ll happily show these supervisors the bridge, and tell them all about our story.

– DPW Head Jim Dougan was aware that Clayton Barber was going to speak at this meeting. We were caught off guard by the ‘bridge presentation’. It was purely an attempt to stall our efforts. Some of the bridges on this presentation were quite comical when compared to our bridge. This presentation was only shown so that we didn’t ask DPW to use their funding to fix our bridge. Instead we try to look for grants.-We have spoke with not only Engineers from VS Engineers, but Wrought Iron Bridge Works, Bach Steel, other independent civil engineers across the county including a former head of the NYS Thruway Authority who restored over 900 bridges, including historic bridges. They all say that this bridge can be lifted to a load capacity of 12-15 tons and reopened.

In regards to safety, we have shown the county officials multiple times from sources inside NYS and outside NYS that these bridges are termed “Functionally Obsolete”. This means that these bridges are still safe, can be maintained for traffic, but they are historical bridges that do not meet the standards of ‘new bridges’ that can hold 40 tons. Our bridges do not sit on major highways, but are vital connector routes in our town because of the ausable river, so the 40 ton weight load is not necessary.-Current estimates for repairing the Upper Bridge is $1-1.65 Million when using Wrought Iron Bridge Works. They will save an estimated 500K by removing the bridge and restoring it in a warehouse, avoiding environmental costs by not painting it over the river.

In Regards to Clinton County-They recently inspected the Swing Bridge.

It hadn’t been inspected since 2014. Inspection showed that it had lost even more paint since 2014, and that minor repairs were needed. A 2018 RPI report says that if the bridge is not painted between 5-10 years that it will lead to the bridge being unusable. Here is the quote. “While much of the bridge exhibits rust to a certain extent, at this time the rust appears to be superficial (i.e., the rusting members do notappear to have significant section loss). Left unchecked, the rusting will continue until the bridge is nolonger useable.” We need this bridge painted, and the repairs to the wingwalls, etc need to be made and maintained. Here is a link to the RPI study: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Im5rsFzc9y_iASxW0IaLqKsuTIS0ngZ8/view?usp=sharing

-Clinton County has applied for a historical structure report for the Old State Road Bridge. Thank you Clinton County for this.-In Regards to Funding, I’ve emailed the Board of Supervisors and the Clinton County Legislature grant funding both at the state and federal levels that could fund our project. We were told by a county official in Clinton County that we could not use a non-profit foundation to raise funds and give to the county. I contacted our state representatives, and they did not find any reason why this couldn’t be done. There was no law in place saying a non profit can’t donate to a County. I sought clarification from that Clinton County Representative and received no answer. I wanted more info so we could double check, and try to help the county cover the remaining 20% of the cost. The towns are also willing to help offset the county costs.-

There is a small group in Essex County and a small group in Clinton County that are preventing us from restoring our bridge. We want to work with them, not against them. The messaging in this article is confusing from Clinton County.Quote:“At this time Clinton County has no plans to rehabilitate the Clinton County-owned bridges. We continue to seek funding opportunities that may facilitate such a project.”

We have provided the funding opportunities, but they are quite honest that they have no plans to do anything with the bridges. We have been asking since July 2020 for help. I’ve been asking them to come up with a plan. Our petition is approaching 2350 signatures.

How much info do we need to provide in order for our officials to realize just how much these bridges are worth? They are not just old bridges, they are not just historical bridges, they are not just civil engineering landmarks, they are truly each one of a kind bridges in the world. Instead of finding ways to say we can’t do this… Let’s work TOGETHER to find a solution. We ask our community and supporters to please keep sending letters. They need to hear from you why these bridges are important.For more details check our website for more information. https://www.keesevillehistoricbridges.com