Eastbound Cheshire duplex.

And westbound.


The Red Bridge was the original bridge on Oregon Rd. across the Quinnipiac (Q to locals) River, part of the former main link from Meriden to Cheshire (which I assume followed CT 70 west of here). Since the writing on this shield is kind of small, I'll intersperse all of the history throughout my captions.
North across the bridge, 78 feet long and 16 feet wide, built in 1891 by the Berlin Iron Bridge Company before it could have been expected to carry automotive traffic. Yet the Red Bridge remained in operation until 1964 until the modern bridge was built next to it, and then became a Registered Historic Place. The Berlin Iron Bridge Company erected more than 600 bridges across the eastern half of the U.S.


Views from the north shore of the Q River. The bridge is a pony truss, meaning there are no overhead truss members. It's also lenticular, a trademark of Berlin Iron bridges, meaning that the top and bottom members of the side trusses are curved into a lens shape. The original bridge here was much less interesting, a high-sided wooden bridge (not even covered).


Looking west at the Q River. The eastward view is ruined by the modern concrete and steel bridge and the pipelines it carries.


Details of the bridge include pine cones on either end of the trusses. The Red Bridge was restored by local residents at the turn of the millennium, which is why it looks so shiny and new. The other six contemporary bridges in the town are all gone now. The seven together cost $6,515, which even today works out to no more than a million dollars for seven bridges. That's less than the cost of one modern bridge.


CT 70 turns from River Rd. onto Main St. at the 1980's shield with the experimental ugly font, then turns again (rather unnecessarily) onto Hanover Ave. at the shield atop the page before coming to its end at CT 71. The turn onto Main St. isn't even necessary, because CT 70 could just as easily have followed Diamond Hill Rd. from the River Rd. split on the west side of South Meriden straight into Main St.

Onto CT 68
Onto CT 71
Back to CT Roads
Back to Roads