Newburyport Chain Bridge

The Newburyport Chain Bridge is the only suspension bridge maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. The first bridge was built at this site in 1792, making it the oldest continually occupied, long span, bridge crossing in the United States. The Derek S. Hines Memorial Bridge and the Newburyport Chain Bridge are on opposite sides of Deer Island, and they connect to create the crossing.

The first bridge at this site was open on November 26, 1792. The bridge was constructed over seven months and was a timber-arch truss bridge. This was the first bridge over the navigable waters of the Merrimack River. The bridge was designed by a local architect named Timothy Palmer, who designed a new truss type for this crossing. He designed a highly cambered long span truss out of wood which resembled the stone arch bridges from mid-16th Century Italy. He later patented this truss type as the Palmer’s Truss. The bridge was deemed unsafe in 1809, and it was dismantled, with the wood being auctioned.

The bridge was rebuilt as a wrought-iron chain suspension bridge in 1810. The abutments were made of stone, with wooden towers standing thirty-five feet above the roadway. The deck was supported by ten chains, with the ends being secured by large stones which were buried in pits. There were three chains above each railing, and four chains in the middle of the bridge. On each side of the center chain was a fifteen-foot travel way, designed for horses, carriages, and pedestrians. The bridge was repaired in 1827, after the weight of a team of oxen snapped five of the chains. The bridge operated as a toll bridge until 1868, when it was purchased by Essex County.

The bridge was rebuilt for a final time in 1910. This project used mostly modern materials although portions of the abutments were reused. An attempt was made to mimic the previous bridge, but it was very unsuccessful. Although the bridge is still referred to as the Chain Bridge, it is now a wire cable suspension bridge, using the standard layout of one cable along each bridge fascia. The towers were constructed from reinforced concrete and appear to be much shorter than the previous bridge. In addition, the new towers have one large opening, whereas the previous bridge had separate openings for each travel lane.

The original timber bridge deck was replaced in 1922 and again in 1931. It was replaced with a steel grid deck in 1938. In 1935, the hinges on stiffening trusses were rebuilt. The bridge underwent a major rehabilitation project in 2003.

(Photograph of this Historic Bridge is downloaded from the Library of Congress: Detroit Publishing Co., Copyright Claimant, and Publisher Detroit Publishing Co. Old chain bridge, Newburyport, Mass., first suspension bridge in America. Massachusetts Newburyport United States, ca. 1900. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016801557/.)