Blackstone Viaduct
| Blackstone Viaduct | |||
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| National Register of Historic Places | |||
 A section of the viaduct in 2017 |
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| location | Blackstone , Massachusetts , United States | ||
| Coordinates | 42 ° 0 ′ 55 " N , 71 ° 32 ′ 0" W | ||
| surface | 2.91 acres (1.2 ha ) | ||
| Built | 1872 | ||
| architect | American Bridge Company | ||
| NRHP number | 01001558 | ||
| The NRHP added | February 5, 2002 | ||
The Blackstone Viaduct (also New York & New England Railroad Viaduct ) is a historical viaduct in the district Waterford in Blackstone , Massachusetts . The structure was built in the 19th century for the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
description
Consisting of granite - ornamental built viaduct runs east-west direction and is approximately 488 m long, 15 m to 30 m wide and 7.6 m high. It consists of a total of eleven individual components in a row.
Under the direction of the New York and New England Railroad , the line was expanded from one to two tracks between 1883 and 1884. It is very likely that the viaduct was designed from the outset for a two-track route, as a future expansion was usually planned by the New England railway companies in the 19th century due to a higher expected traffic load. As early as 1912 the viaduct began to show signs of deterioration, so that some of the arches had to be supported with wooden structures. In 1918 the bridge was reinforced by encasing the entire structure with a 30 cm thick layer of reinforced concrete . Therefore, the original construction of the viaduct can no longer be seen, even if the arches have been preserved.
Historical meaning
The viaduct, built in 1872, is a monument to the historical development of the railways in Blackstone and the surrounding area, especially against the background of the race between different railroad companies to connect Boston with New York at the time of its construction .
The first industrial activity in Blackstone and the surrounding area dates back to 1716 when an ironworks was established on Forge Pond. In the 19th century, the settlement of various mills that were powered by the water power of the Blackstone River followed . A crucial point was the construction of a large factory in 1804 on what is now the Blackstone Manufacturing Company Historic District , which resulted in the establishment of other, smaller companies in the immediate vicinity. Another driver of growth was the construction of the Blackstone Canal between Providence and Worcester from 1828 to 1848, which allowed goods to be easily transported. A piece of land and the 1917 Canal Street Railroad Bridge at the western end of the viaduct are contributing properties to the Blackstone Canal Historic District .
In the 1840s, in the course of planning a railway connection, there was disagreement as to whether Blackstone should be better connected to Boston or Providence. Eventually there was widespread public support for a line via Worcester to Providence, which the Providence and Worcester Railroad was commissioned with in 1844 . On October 25, 1847, the first train ran on this route and stopped in Blackstone at a depot near the Blackstone Manufacturing Company. In contrast to the canal, the railroad offered local companies a fast and inexpensive transport route that worked all year round, and was therefore the preferred means of transport in the region immediately after its completion.
In spite of this success, the local entrepreneur Welcome Farnum pursued the idea of a railway connection between the city and the Boston harbor, which he was able to convince the Massachusetts General Court of in 1847 . The Norfolk County Railroad was commissioned with the construction and began operating the line on May 15, 1849 and continued until 1857. The line was then leased to a variety of railroad companies in succession until it came into the possession of the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad in 1867 .
The company had been building an inland, alternative railroad line from Boston to New York since the early 1860s, focusing primarily on the acquisition of existing railroad companies. This goal, which many predecessors had already failed to achieve, was finally achieved in 1873 when the last remaining gap was closed. The completion of the Blackstone Viaduct in 1872 was an important part of this achievement. However, the acquisition and linking of the numerous railway companies had devoured so much money that the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad had to file for bankruptcy shortly afterwards . In 1875, the successor to the New York and New England Railroad was founded, which served the route that had just been completed. Also known as the "Air Line", the line was profitable until the opening of a railway bridge over the Thames River near New London, Connecticut in 1889. From this point on, the line increasingly lost passengers and cargo to the Shore Line operated by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , which ran on a different route from Boston to New York.
After the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad won the competition and bought the New York and New England Railroad, they continued to use the "Air Line" as an alternative route for long-distance trains until the 1955 Connecticut line was badly damaged by Hurricane Diane . In 1963, passenger transport between Blackstone and Boston was discontinued. When it was taken over by Penn Central Transportation in 1969, the route, which also included the viaduct, was finally abandoned.
See also
literature
- Matthew Kierstead, Jonathan NP Mekinda, Betsy Friedberg: National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. (PDF) National Park Service , United States Department of the Interior , November 2001, accessed on September 15, 2019 (English, attention geoblocking; accessible via the "NR" button).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. Kierstead / Mekinda / Friedberg, pp. 5-8.
- ↑ cf. Kierstead / Mekinda / Friedberg, p. 14.
- ↑ cf. Kierstead / Mekinda / Friedberg, p. 9.
- ↑ cf. Kierstead / Mekinda / Friedberg, p. 10.
- ↑ a b cf. Kierstead / Mekinda / Friedberg, p. 11.
- ↑ cf. Kierstead / Mekinda / Friedberg, p. 12.
- ↑ cf. Kierstead / Mekinda / Friedberg, p. 13.