The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-12-07
PRESERVE THIS BRIDGE.
A Writer in One of Our State Dailies Calls
Upon the People of Maryland t"
Aid "a Worthy Object.

Mr.. James p. Gaffney, a civil en-
gineer Of Cumberland, contributed to
the Baltimore Suil of Monday last an
article concerning the need of repairs
upon the Castleman river bridge in
this county. This structure, it will
distance east of Grantsyille, on the
old National road, and was built
about the year 1915 at an expense to
the National Government of more
than 100000. The writer, Mr.. Gaff-
ney, hopes to arouse public sentiment
favorable to the preservation and
better care of the historic structure.
Since the National road and its
bridges have been under State care
we have never yet been able to learn
of single cent being spent for re-
pairs to the bridges. The road, as
whole, has been scraped over year
after year and in many cases it has
the supervisor" and his boys went
out to fix it.
THE REPUBLICAN presents MIR.
Gatfney's article below, heartily COM
mendng it, with the hope that the
commissioners will take such action
at an early day as to restore this his
toric bridge. If the matter is not
soon taken up and the necessary re-
pairs made new structure will be a
necessity, and the cost will be more
than double that of the cost of re-
pairs;
On recent trip to Garrett county
the writer had the pleasure of view
ing a portion of the National road,
beyond Frostburg. Pages might be
written on the beauty and grandeur
of the natural scenery along the
whole line of road as one winds over
lofty mountains and descends into
the narrow valleys intervening. The
writer was even more interested,
however, from a professional point of
view, in the enterprise and skill dis
played by the pioneer engineers OF
this county, who "builded better
than they knew" as the many monu-
ments of beautiful stone bridgeworks
crossed over do testify. Standing
thus more than three-quarters of a
century without any apparent re
pairs being made to preserve them
since their erection, they silently ap
peal to the most disinteIested OBJ
server as objects of pity, mingled
with shame, that such fine specimens
of early stone structural work should
be allowed to fall into decay by ne
glect of slight repairs being made
from time to time, until to-day many
of them are dismaIItled of coping
stones; from others the parapet wall'
have been thrown into the ravine'
which these bridges span, evidently
by the thOughtless vandalism o
Youths in their schOolbOy days.
Yet the arches stand to-day in al
their rugged beauty and strength al
when first erected. The most re
markable fact about these bridges il
that they are built mostly in rubbl'
work, very little cut stone being uset
in their construction. The fines
specimen of this rubble, or rough
stone architecture, which the write
has seen on the line of the NatiOna
road, is at what seems to best know
as 1.-THE Little Crossing,n short dis
tance east of Grantsville. This bridge
crosses the Castleman rivera clea
span of 80 feet-by beautifully per
feet semi-crcular arch rising nearl,
so feet above the water level, and il
it's perfect symmetry making a mos
imposing picture.
With it's span and approaches i
measures 307 feet long by "a feet wide
This bridge was designed and bull
by Mr.. David Shriver, Jr., some tim
in the year 1918, as is evident fror
the correspondence published in tn
appendix to Seabright's History c
the National Road wherein MI
Shriver is instructed to proceed wit
the bridges aud mason work of tn
road from the twenty-first mile (frol
Cumberland) to Uniontown, by A
bert Gallatin, then Secretary of tn
Treasury under President Jefferson
In one of these letters written froI
the Treasury Department, date
March 10, 1918, to d. Shriver, Jr
Secretary Gallatin says: II approx
of having q stone bridge across th
Little Youghiogheny.' This refer
to the Little Crossing" so called b
Washington and Meshack Brownin
in their days, and by Mr. Jaco
Brown, the nestor of the Cumberlan
bar, of our own time, in their wri
ings relative to that section of coul
try On the original plat of the roa
from the twenty-first mile to Uniol
town, now in the possession of M
Robert Shriver, president of tt
First National Band of Cumberlan
grandnephew of David Shriver, Jl
the crossing, so referred to bySecretal
Gallatin, is called the Little Yough
ogheny," and the writer can find I
data which throw light on the ira
sition of the name to the Castlema
river, as it is now called on all tt
maps of Maryland and Pennsylvan
of recent date.
To return to the Castleman rive
or Little Youghiogheny bridge, Il
writer desires to create and foster
public opinion among the sons
Maryland with view to the repai
and preservation of such structu
as this one, especially so worthy
the just pride of every Marylandt
These, much more than foot prints
the great men gone before us, al
theirs was an ideal age of great IN
even though engineering was in
infancy as compared with the pr'
I