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Bissell, Franklin County

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Inventory Number: MA/21-06-04x
County: Franklin County
Township: Charlemont
Town/Village:
Bridge Name: Bissell
Crosses: Mill Brook
Truss type: Town
Spans: 1
Length: 60'
Roadway Width:
Built: 1880
Builder:
When Lost: c1951
Cause: Replaced
Latitude: N42 37.892
Longitude: W072 52.121
See a map of the area
Topographic map of the area
Directions: 0.5 miles north of jct MA2 on MA8A.

Charlemont, Franklin County, MA Lost before 1951
George Pease Collection, NSPCB Archives

Bissell Bridge, Charlemont, Franklin County, MA Lost before 1951
William Maxant Photo, 1939, Harvard (MA) Historical Society

Comments:
Town records indicate that at a March 1880 meeting it was voted to build a bridge near Adam Bissell's. A committee was selected to supervise the construction of the bridge at a cost of $600. An important factor in the construction of the original bridge was caused by increased traffic when the Davis Mine opened in 1882. Ore wagons, carrying iron and sulfur, crossed the bridge for many years. In the late 1940s, the bridge was condemned. Plans were made to build a replacement bridge which was constructed in 1951 at a cost of $54,962.75 using Douglas fir from Oregon. This bridge was closed in 1995. According to an article in the Milliford Daily News, the state proposed replacing the structure with a new modern steel and concrete bridge but the citizens of Charlemont, Massachusetts, in what has been referred to as "the standoff in Charlemont," banded together and fought the project, preferring to keep their "covered bridge." The state owns the bridge, but the town controls the crossing thus the stalemate. State engineers finally agreed that the bridge could be repaired using wood and a few steel strengthening bars. The bridge was rebuilt and reopened in May 2009. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places February 26, 2004.

Sources:
National Society For the Preservation of Covered Bridges. Covered Bridge Topics, Volume VIII, Number 3, September 1950, pages 1, 4
List of Covered Bridges in Massachusetts compiled by the Bridge Division of the Massachusetts Department of Public Works in September 1932, 1932
Burk, John. Covered Bridges of Massachusetts, 2010, Pages 33-36

Compilation 2026 Covered Spans of Yesteryear

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