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They don't make bridges like this anymore

Granite Avenue bridge looking towards Dorchester

People who cross the Neponset River between Dorchester and Milton on Granite Avenue traverse a bridge that looks like, and is, a relic of the days when the Neponset River was a working river.

The nation's first railroad, built in 1826, ferried granite blocks from a Quincy quarry to a wharf on the banks on Gulliver's Brook, which is just upstream of the bridge, and from which the builders of the Bunker Hill Monument got their granite blocks.

Schooner being loaded with blocks from the Quincy railway (the big-wheeled thing is one of the "cars"- from the BPL's photo collection):

Neponset River schooner

A bridge went up around 1837 near the wharf. In 1914, the state legislature authorized construction of a more modern bascule drawbridge.

Granite Avenue bridge

Today, of course, the bridge has entered its golden years, only rising and lowering for the passage of boats from one of the two yacht clubs upstream (one right next to the bridge).

If the light is flashin', don't keep walkin':

Granite Avenue bridge: Light

Cables go down to the underside of the bridge:

Granite Avenue bridge: Cables

Window-like cutouts at the top of the concrete weight provide a handy place for pigeons to rest - and to hide from the hawks and now bald eagles that patrol the Neponset:

Granite Avenue bridge: Pigeons
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Comments

We have a Vincent Crotty painting of that bridge.

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Drove over that bridge thousands of times after exiting the expressway, on the way home to Lower Mills. My Grandfather called it "The Singing Bridge" because of the deep-throated rumbling it made when our car went over the grates.

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

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I saw a peregrine falcon behind Boston Scientific on Squantum Point yesterday.

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I drive over that bridge daily on my way home from work. Last summer, a smallish piece of concrete or rusted steel fell from the bridge and struck the rear quarter panel of my car, leaving a small dent and a streak of reddish paint. The thing feels sturdy enough when driving over it, but the incident makes me wonder what condition the bridge is really in.

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