Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1885-09-25
ABOLISH TIE BRIDGE TOLLS.

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customs and employments should
be annoyed by this ancient custom of
collecting tolls. The tolls are trif-
ling in themselves, but like gnats
and fleas they are devilish annoying
and are constantly fretting and |
chatting people in their intercourse
with each other in the same village |
perhaps. They interrupt and clog
the blood in the veins of a village
situated on the Connecticut pre-
cisely as a toll bridge on IsraePs
river would operate on the village
of Lancaster, which would be to in
terrupt the business circulation of
that village just long enough to
mako it free either by legal means
or an instantaneous riot. We hope
the suggestions of our contempo-
rary will stir up the dry bones of
this foSsilated old system.
1t remains for Lancaster and the
towns adjoining, and for the other
side Of the Connecticut liver, to lie
about the last to maintain the sys-
TEN Of toll bridges. They were
once very common, because indi-
vidual capital formed itself into cor
porations for the purpose of estab-
fishing highways over waterways,
the same as railways are now built
and maintained at corporate ex-
: pense and under corporate control.
But the system of toll bridges has,
by long experience in various parts
of the country, been found to be at
once very expensive and annoying
to the public. Scarce any one in
the community, but that sooner or
later, and large number of persons
very frequently are obliged, in the
pursuit of business or pleasure, to
cross streams upon bridges; and in
tercourse between communities,
towns and states can only be car,
ried on by some system of bridging
the streams.
The practical question arises,
what system shall we adopt? Shall
it be an ancient, antiquated, out
grown system of toll bridges such
as exists in South Lancaster, near
the Centre, and at Guildhall, with
the old-fashioned rope ferry at
Dalton thrown in, or shall it be a
system of free bridges, owned and
maintained by the adjoining towns,
as exists now quite universally in
every portion of the land? We,
here in Lancaster, have become so
accustomed to it that the subject
perhaps is hardly given thought.
But strangers who visit this region
at once notice it, object to it and
comment upon it as an arbitrary ex-
action and an annoying nuisance.
The rates of toll adjusted so as to
favor the persons who reside per-
manently upon either side of the
river, as against the strangers or
other persons who have occasion to
use the bridges only infrequently.
The system of tickets, or season
tickets, makes the toll very light
compared with that CHARGED to
transient travellers, and the rates of
toll vary very greatly at the three
different points named and are
greatly out of proportion. For in.
stance, at the Centre bridge 81
cents each way is charged for pain
of horses and carriage; at the
South Lancaster bridge 10 cents fol
the same, and at Guildhall u cents.
Each of the bridges are of substan.
TALLY the same length, about the
same character and quality, and
why this difference should be main
tanned it is impossible to say, it
being nearly double in amount at
the centre bridge that it is at the
other two bridges.
Constant complaints are made
that there are no lights at the cen
ire bridge Severe accidents from
collisions are liable to occur there,
and whether the bridge is to be
maintained by a system of tolls OF
as free bridge, it should be prop.
erly lighted at each end, and that
Immediately.
The town authorities and the peo-
pie of the towns upon opposite sides
of the river, where the bridges are
located, should at once take this
matter into careful and serious con-
Sideration for the purpose OF obtain
ing possession of the bridges, and
making the highways over them as
free as the ordinary roads. The
public who use the bridges are pay
ing totally unnecessary expense,
which is quite an item, in the collec-
tion of the tolls, which expense
would be saved if the bridges were
made free. The cost Of purchasing
them to the adjoining towns, and
maintaining them as free bridges,
would not be noticed by a single
inhabitant, and the general advant-
ages to the towns and the public in
abolishing the toll gatherer, would
be appreciated by the public, and
would be indirectly benefit to the
townships on both sides of the river.
= The spinning wheel and
the hand loom have gone out Of
date, and along with them should
90 the toll bridpes al Gnildhall.