Evening star., 1945-02-25
BY John Clagett Proctor

soul in his poem, THE Bridge" which
long time ago was set to music and
sung by many an oldtimer whenever
the opportunity presented itself.
Time has passed since it was written
and yet it is still popular and still beau
tiful. You, of course, recall it. In part
1t goes like this:
" stood on the bridge at midnight,
As the clocks tDere striking the hour,
And the moon rose DER the city,
Behind the dark church, toper
NJ sdU her bright reflection
In the ,Daters under me,
Like golden goblet falling
And sinking into the sea.
And like those ,D1ters rushing
Among the Dooden piers,
A food OF thoughts came DER me
That filled my eyes NTH tears.
"HotD often, oh, hotU often,
had tDished that the ebbing tide
Would bear me utDdy on its bosom
Ger the ocean, ,Dild and tDtdet"
During the Civil War
Though not the earliest bridge to span
the Potomac, yet the Long Bridge was
during its entire existence very i'm
portant link between the North and the
South, and during the Civil War 1t was
the principal military route for the
Union Army and afforded much COM
fort to the retreating troops from the
Bull Run battlefield. On May % and
"a, 1865, the armies of the Potomac
and sherman's army marched over the
Long Bridge for their historic grand re-
view.
This bridge was originally constructed
In 1909, but not without considerable
opposition on the part of the George
town merchants to prevent it, since it
was looked upon as threatening their
commercial interests by blocking up the
river channel
Under ordinary conditions, the flow
of water past this point in the Potomac
River is rather swift, and, naturally,
during ,havy freshets, the, force re- of
water striking bridge here is very
heavy. Twenty years after the bridge
was built and when the ice was break
ing up and the river was swollen, the
bridge was considerably damaged by
having not less than IA gaps made in it.
The company found itself financially
unable to repair the damage, and Con-
gress, by an act passed July IA, 1882,
purchased the right and title to the
bridge for $4,000.
Upon examination of the damaged
structure, it was deemed unwise to at
tempt to repair or restore it, and Con-
gress, on June 80, 1884, appropriated
$4,000 for the erection of a new
bridge, which was completed in 1885,
and formally opened on October of
that year by President Andrew Jack
son and his cabinet, who walked the
! mile across it, returning in carriages:
Almost Destroyed by Ice
Evidently the bridge erected by the
Government was not permanent job,
for on February 10, 1840, the new bridge
was nearly destroyed by ice. the draw
being almost carried away. Freshets in
jured it again in 1856, 1860, 1868, 1866 and
1867, and in 1870, part of the causeway
and the south draw were washed away,
while the freshet OF seven years later
also injured it considerably.
Still in the memory of many is the
disastrous flood of February 1881, which
covered the lower part of the city from
the Washington Monument to the
Capitol with several feet of water, Penn
sylvania avenue, upon that occasion,
taking on a typical Venetian appear
Nnce. Upon this occasion a part of
the Long Bridge gave way under the
pressure Of the ice and water, and in
doing 50, permitted the food to sub
side. However, this was repeated dur
ing the Johnstown flood Of 1889, when
the Avenue was again flooded and
much damage was done.
Though the bridge acted as a dam,
especially at such times. when the
ice in the river was breaking up, yet
Congress, to make matters worse, au-
thorized the Washington & Alexandria
Railroad Co. on March 8, 1858, to
extend its tracks down Maryland ave-
nue. and across the Long Bridge, pro-
vided 1t did not interfere with the
regular travel over the structure.
The Railroad Bridge
The exigency Of the occasion may
ut this time have warranted the con-
cession, but the railroad company ap-
pears to have taken advantage of the
situation by completing, in the fol-
lowing year, bridge close to and
paralleling the original structure and
subdividing the old spans by piles driven
ut the distance Of II to 18 feet. In
doing this, the design of the original
bridge was altered from truss bridge
10 one on piles.
Naturally, great indignation ensued,
but nothing was done. and probably
could not be done to relieve the stu
alton, other than building new bridge,
and, of course, this was, a question
Of decades rather than days, for it was
many years afterward before the Long
Bridge was removed.
From a military standpoint the Long
Bridge also had its troubles back in
1914, when the British burned the
Washington end to prevent q surprise
attack from Gen. Winders nondescript
troops, who, in turn, in self-defense, set
fire to the south end to keep them
selves out Of harms reach.
At the close Of the war, the Wash
inston Bridge Co., was paid part Of It's
loss by Congress, since 1t was shown