The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-08-16
Trunk Highway
 Has Been Finished.
Continued From Page 1.)

IOIn rage 1.J
 receiver. On the trunk highway freight transportation other than those applying to all state highways.
 The contract for the trunk high way was awarded s July 18th, 1919, . specifications required that the work be completed in 400 working days. The road is what is known as a bi- luminous macadam over a seven inch consisting of stone three inches in depth, after rolling, and cemented together by the application of tar in the amount of two and a quarter gallons for each square yard of sur face.
 The amount of Federal Aid to be applied to the contract will be 50 per cent. of the total cost, or approxi- n2ately s157,5oo. This is the third third Federal aid, the Hamden-Cheshire and the road from Norwich to West erly through Preston and North Stonington having been previously constructed or started under the
 Only about half the length of the new ridgeport-Danbury line is of current construction, the main con tract above referred to, covering only a distance of 11.2 miles starting from a point in the lower part of Bethel and extending to Ogden's Corner in Easton. From that point to Bridge port use is made of the section built several years ago by the Bridgeport Water company to take the place of the old Black Rock turnpike, the lat ter having been submerged by the company's reservoir project Ihls vision and probably with view to the part it was to fill in the larger scheme of the future that has now been realized. For the eleven mile section northward from osdens cor ner Frank Valerie of Stamford was the contractor-builder- Across Red ding Ridge there was a stretch of about two miles of earlier State and town construction and this also helped to expedite fu1fl1ment of the larger scheme, there was needed only as resurfacing to meet contract reQu1re- ment. In upper Bethel there re- mained a gap of about two miles and here a concrete road has been built the present season by H. Sanford Os- born at a contract price of about s40,OOO. He did the work we'll and expeditiously although a provision for | wider strip of concrete would un- doubted1y have been an improvement
 Will the new road stand up under the heavy traffic to which it will De subjected to a query of the critics They say that experience has shown that concrete alone gives satisfactory endurance, but admit that in the es- sential matter of drainage the new
  Is in this respect it is believed to be above criticism and in general all ad- init that the job is one which does credit to Commissioners Charles J. Bennett and his aids in the state Highway Department
 As east Bedding, otherwise the Ridge section, lies tantallz1ngiy midway between the Housatonic and Danbury and Norwa1k railroads the inhabitants have long been eager to obtain better transportation facilities through improved means Of traVe! to the north and south. About the tme railroad to obtain this result was pro- iected from westport or some other shore town to Danbury. The scheme hickered intermittent1y until about 1884 at which time the New York and New Haven road offered to sup ply and lay rails and furnish rolling stock equipment if right of way and roadbed were provided by the par l CTS could not meet this requirement.
 being perhaps in the fix of a Western promoter who vowed he had been | prevented from building a big rail- road solely through lack of money 1 to pay for recording the fncorpora- | ton papers. Anyway this 1884 furry
 was the last flicker of the steam Ta1l- Then came the era of tro1leys and 1 agitation and hope revived. Soon
 after the dawn of the present cen
 tury the late Andrew Radel. ther
 president of the new Bridgeport Trac- | ton Co.,, obtained a charter for ar
 electric road having branches which
 starting at Bridgeport and Norwalk
 converged just above Jump Hill and | thence continued by a single line
 across Bedding Ridge to Danbury | Dam sites along the Saugatuck river
 were acquired to furnish the cleo | tricity for operating the proposed | line. The charter was two or three times renewed by the Legislature and | then allowed to lapse because o1 | changed conditions unfavorable to the enterprise, and so another hopefu | prospect went glimThering-
 1 A slight renaissance of hope occur
 red ten or twelve years ago when 2
 :rolley line northbound from Bridge port and having Danbury as its | destination was projected. To Red, ding folks the great, the fatal defeat in the scheme was that the layout | went through Trumbull and Danbury They made something of an effort tC | get this decision amended in favor o1
 a westward shift of a layout, bu | without success. Consequently agent: | who later came amongst our mids
 and tried to sell bonds of the Bridge
 port-Trumbull-Dan company en
 countered the glacial brow and th'
 c1utched, frozen hand. The subse
 bull trolley aroused no commsseratio1
 In Bedding.
 Now that the trunk highway ha!
 come into being these disappointment
 of the past are viewed without
 tinge of the old bitterness and regret
 What we have got-so say our folks
 Is rather better than what we previous