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The Bellows Falls Arch Bridge was a three-hinged steel through arch bridge over the Connecticut River between Bellows Falls, Vermont and North Walpole, New Hampshire. It was structurally significant as the longest arch bridge in the United States when it was completed in 1905.〔 The bridge was built to circumvent an existing toll bridge and prevent people from using the Boston and Maine Railroad bridge, a practice the railroad preferred to discourage.〔 ==History== Due to industrial and transportation expansion, residential needs in the Bellows Falls and Walpole area expanded in the late 1800s. The only means of crossing the river was provided by the Tucker Toll Bridge and the Sullivan Railroad Bridge. The Tucker Toll Bridge was a Town lattice truss covered bridge completed in 1840, which was acquired by the towns in 1904 and free thereafter.〔Hayes, pp. 269–270 (plus plate)〕 The Sullivan Railroad Bridge was originally built by the Sullivan Railroad,〔The Sullivan Railroad was acquired by the Boston and Maine Railroad, see List of defunct New Hampshire railroads〕 built in 1882 as a replacement for a 1852 span.〔Simpson, p.275〕 Residents didn't like the toll, and the Boston and Maine Railroad objected to pedestrians on its bridge, so following the town meetings in March 1904, the two communities formed a joint committee to buy out the toll bridge and replace it with a new bridge, with five members from each town.〔〔 Walpole budgeted US$30,000 (US$ with inflation), and Rockingham, Vermont, which includes Bellows Falls, offered US$15,000 (US$ with inflation). The two towns established an agreement whereby maintenance costs would be shouldered two-thirds by Walpole and one-third by Rockingham.〔 Design restrictions included the objection by the Bellows Falls Canal Company to any abutments obstructing the river near their canal,〔 as well as the river bed conditions in the area, which are roughly deep, with no firm location for a pier. This situation was thought to necessitate a single span structure.〔Worcester, p. 289〕 The Bridge Committee held an unsuccessful design competition. While the Committee received many proposals for deck trusses and suspension bridges, all were too expensive.〔 Having exhausted their own proposals, they requested assistance from the railroad. Since it wished to eliminate pedestrians from its bridge, the railroad complied by providing a company engineer as an advisor. The advisor, a Mr. Snow, recommended that the Committee hire civil engineer J.R. Worcester, from Boston, Massachusetts, which they did.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Arch Bridge (Bellows Falls)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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