Swing Bridge at New Bridge Landing
Draw Bridge at New Bridge | |
Location | Main Street and Old New Bridge Road over the Hackensack River, New Milford, New Jersey |
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Coordinates | 40°54′51″N 74°1′48″W / 40.91417°N 74.03000°W |
Area | 0.4 acres (0.16 ha) |
Built | 1888 |
Architect | Stagg, Joseph W.; King Bridge Company |
Architectural style | Pratt-type low truss bridge |
NRHP reference No. | 89000775[1] |
NJRHP No. | 655[2] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | July 5, 1989 |
Designated NJRHP | May 22, 1989 |
The bridge at New Bridge Landing, New Jersey was built in 1888 to replace an earlier wooden one, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 5, 1989.
History
According to historian Kevin Wright, the extant iron swing bridge at New Bridge Landing occupies the site of a series of wooden drawbridges that have spanned the narrows of the Hackensack River at New Bridge since 1745. Until 1790, this was the first river crossing above Newark Bay and so carried overland traffic between Manhattan and the interior of North America. The bridge became vitally important during the American Revolution and was crossed by General George Washington at the head of the retreating garrison of Fort Lee on November 20, 1776, earning its appellation as the Bridge That Saved A Nation. Hills on either side of New Bridge were fortified during the war to defend this strategic crossing and stone houses flanking the bridge served as forts, battleground, encampment ground and military headquarters in every year of the conflict. New Bridge was literally, "the crossroads of the American Revolution," having supposedly survived more of the war than any other spot in America.
Bridge Contracts: New Bridge Draw — Smith Bridge Co., $4,170; Penn. $4,390; Berlin, $4,287; Dean & Westbrook, $4,330; Variety, $4,390; Columbia, $4,345; Pittsburg, $4,467; King Iron, $3,990 — King Iron awarded contract. Bids for stone work — Joseph Stagg, $3,994; S. H. Vanderbeck, $4,324. Contract to Mr. Stagg.
Joseph W. Stagg, House Mover and Bridge Builder, resided in the Highland section of
On November 14, 1906, the caboose on the freight train, due at the
The bridge remained operational, principally for coal and lumber barges, until 1940 when replacement of the downstream bridge at Anderson Street, Hackensack, with a fixed span, closed the river upstream to navigation. A new roadway for extending Hackensack Avenue beyond its intersection with Main Street in River Edge, to an extension of New Bridge Road in New Milford was laid out in 1956 across the northwest corner of the Bergen County Historical Society's property, to a new concrete-and-steel bridge over the Hackensack River, 500' north of the iron truss bridge. Thus, the Bergen County Historical Society prevented construction of an elevated highway bridge immediately adjacent to the south gable-end of the historic Steuben House. The closing of the 1889 swing bridge to automotive traffic turned Main Street, River Edge, into a dead-end in front of the Steuben House. Old New Bridge Road (on the boundary between New Milford and Teaneck) likewise became a dead end.
The Army Corps of Engineers planned to destroy the old bridge as soon as the new one was completed. The Bergen County Historical Society and the Dumont Women's Club successfully petitioned to keep the historic span for a pedestrian crossing. Colonel John T. O’Neill, of the Army Corps of Engineers, yielded to Freeholder Walter M. Neill, who promised that Bergen County would henceforth maintain the old bridge, if it were spared.
Historians Claire Tholl and Kevin Wright provided the research for its listing on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places as the "Draw Bridge at New Bridge" in 1989 to commemorate its centennial.[1] It is recognized as the oldest surviving highway swing-bridge in the State of New Jersey. It can no longer rotate because it has been welded to the piers at either end.
With approval from the Historic New Bridge Landing Park Commission, Bergen County completed a rehabilitation and historic restoration of the 1889 Swing Bridge in October 2003.
See also
- New Bridge Landing
- List of crossings of the Hackensack River
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Bergen County, New Jersey
- List of bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in New Jersey
References
- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ "New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places - Bergen County" (PDF). NJ DEP - Historic Preservation Office. July 7, 2009. p. 19. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 30, 2008. Retrieved March 23, 2010.