Morning journal and courier., 1885-02-25

Hearing the TOmlfnsOn Bridge
Halter Before the. Committee on
Prominent New Haven Citizens Pres
emit The Case Continued Until Next
Week.
| HARTFORD, Feb. "a.
Especial to the JOURNAL AND CouR1KR1
| The attendance was not large when the
House opened for business this morning
| Most of the Senators were in their seats,
| however, and in twenty-five minutes from
| the time the gavel fell the table was cleared
| and an adjournment taken.
| This afternoon the Committee on Roads
and Bridges gave hearing on the bill pro-
| viding for the rebuilding of the Washington
bridge by New Haven and Fairfield counties.
| The hearing was a brief one, however, as
| County Commissioner Jacobs, of New Haven
took the wind out of the sails of the advo-'
Gates of the bill by declaring that it had ne
| legal status before the Assembly from the
fact that the bill being OF an adverse nature
the county commissioners should have been
notified of the pending of the bill This had
not been done and the bill, therefore, could
not be considered. This was admitted by
Judge Slade, who had advocated the bill, and
he said he would not trouble the committee
| further with it. This settles the matter for
| this year.
The next matter considered by this COM
| mittee was the Tomlinson bridge matter,
which the petitioners asked should be re-
paired OF, in fact, rebuilt by the bridge COM
pany. Ex-Governor Ingersoll represented
| the interests of the town of New Haven, G.
7. Driscon the city of New Haven and Geo.
r. Watrous and Henry c. Robinson, of Hart
ford, the bridge company. There we're a
large number of prominent New Haven citi-
gems present to advocate the bill, among
/ them being Mayor Holcomb, ex-Mayor
Lewis, Ex-Governor English, E. S. Wheeler,
Select1nen Tyler, Feldman, Crawford, Beech
er and Treat, City Engineer Hill, Captain
| Charles H. Townshend, also Fl. G. Rowe and
| others from Fair Haven.
The first witness called was City Engineer
| Hill. He said there were formerly 2, 700 feet
| of waterway; now there was only one-ninth
| or one-tenth of that amount. He said the
bridge was serious obstruction to the har-
Dor from the fact that the spiles prevented
| the ice from flowing out into the harbor. An
other serious objection was that it prevented
/ the securing of the channel. The upper
| harbor was fast filling up all the
| time owing to the tidal volume not
| It also renders navigation through the
| draw very perilous on account of the rapidity
| with which the water passed through it.
| Again the drawbridge was only twelve feet
| wide, not sufficient to allow teams to pass.
| Ex-Governor English was next called. He
| said: When this bridge was built New
| Haven was only provincial town of six or
| seven thousand inhabitants. The town was
| now ten times that number. Fair Haven has
| grown from small village to place where
| there are large business interests. Business
1 has increased in volume and character. Coal
| and lumber barges are now towed through,
| and some of them are very wide, and it is
| very dangerous to go through the draw.
| While business had largely increased the
| draw remained without change. He said
l that while he did not desire to injure the
| Consolidated railroad, who owned the bridge,
| still the harbor must be protected. To-day,
1 he said, the bridge was a frst-class ruin.
| The timbers were rotten, and to keep it from
tumbling down props had been put under it
| to hold it up. There was not such wreck
| of bridge in the whole State. I hope, said
| the Governor, that way will be provided to
have the evil remedied. In closing he said
all he asked was that the committee go and
look at the bridge, and he had no doubt but
they would be satisfied that something
should be done and that speedily.
E. S. Wheeler was the next witness. He
said that his company, which was located
between the Tomlinson and Quinnipiac
| bridges, on the east side, did great deal of
| heavy carting over it. He said it was very in
convenient on account of the width of the
bridge, it not being wide enough for two
teams to pass over it. The growth of the
village opposite the city was actually stopped
by this bridge. The piles under the bridge
hindered the ice from flowing out and should
be removed at once. OF course il this was
done the bridge would fall
Henry c. Rowe said that his place of bust
ness for opening and packing oysters was
above Quinnipiac bridge They were
obliged to carry out large numbers of shells
| and bring to their wharves large quantities
of oysters. For the past three weeks they
had not been able to get to their wharves
on account of the ice. If the draw was To-
Gated farther east he said it would get true
current and they would not be bafied by it
! as at present. He said the traffic above
tho bridges had, he should think,
increased tenfold during his recollection.
Captain Charles H. Townshend said that
when the bridge was first constructed it filled
built and the sideways partially filed up
navigation had been seriously impeded. The
tidal wave could not get through these sluice-
ways and at high tide nearly foot
higher the harbor south side than it
was on the north side. In regard to the pill
ing he said he went under the bridge the
other day and counted one hundred and two
piles. He said that he noticed too that these
piles were thoroughly honeycombed and
thereby weakened by the worms and there
fore had to be replaced every year or two.
He said he had no doubt.that the damage to
the oyster interest in Fair Haven during the
present ice blockade was at least $50, 900,
which would have been avoided if the river
had been properly bridged.
Captain Henry L. Lindsey, Captain Leonard
bradley, IL. II. 1anScom, the Sn1pDu1lder,
Alfred Hughes, and others testified to the
difficulties arising from the bridge in its
present condition, which they claimed was
serious obstacle to navigation ON the Quinni-
piac and Mill rivers.
L. w. Sperry and Mayor Holcombs told
the committee of the amount of business
done above the bridge
Mr.. Watrous for the company thought
there was very little to dispute about in this
matter. We don't claim it model structure
artistic as it should be. We don't pre-
tend to say that there should not be a
change. eve did I think commence to
reconstruct year ago. But there is strong
feeling that it should be free bridge. We
cannot, however, afford to make the bridge
what it should be and give it to the
public. We should have gone on and rebuilt
the bridge but for the fact that the city
wanted it a free bridge. Since the Quinni-
piac bridge was built the income from the
bridge has been very materially reduced.
We have said to the city and town that we
will surrender the bridge to you, but we do
not propose to surrender our wharves
We have said that you may
have the bridge and have said