- City:
- Bourne, MA
- Site Type:
- Infrastructure and Utilities, Roads, Bridges, and Tunnels
- New Deal Agencies:
- Federal & Military Operations, Public Works Funding, Army Corps of Engineers, Public Works Administration (PWA)
- Started:
- 1933
- Completed:
- 1935
- Designer:
- Fay/Spofford & Thorndike of Boston
- Contractor:
- American Bridge Company
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Marked:
- Unknown
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
The Bourne Bridge across the Cape Cod canal was built for the US Army Corps of Engineers, with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). It was part of a very large project to improve the canal and add three bridges across it; the PWA allotment was $6,138,000 for the entire project. (Short & Stanley-Brown 1939)
The project began in 1933 and the bridge opened in 1935.
The contractor was American Bridge Company of New York, New York and the engineering was done by Fay, Spofford, and Thorndike of Boston, Massachusetts (historicbridges.com)
The Bourne Bridge won the American Institute of Steel Construction’s Class “A” Award of Merit as the “Most Beautiful Steel Bridge” in 1934.
The substructure of the bridge consists of two main channel piers of concrete faced with granite, four approach span concrete piers, and two concrete abutments. The main span is 616 feet and the total length of the bridge is almost 2,400 feet. The top of the steel arch is 270 feet above mean canal level and the clearance is 135 feet above the channel. (Short & Stanley-Brown 1939; historicbridges.org)
The roadway is 40 feet wide with a 6-foot sidewalk and carries state route 28 over the canal.
The Bourne Bridge was rehabilitated in 1981 but is in danger of being demolished, according to Historic Bridges.com.
Source notes
C.W. Short and R. Stanley-Brown. Public Buildings: A Survey of Architecture of Projects Constructed by Federal and Other Governmental Bodies Between the Years 1933 and 1939 with the Assistance of the Public Works Administration. (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1939).
https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=massachusetts/bournebridge/
Site originally submitted by Shaina Potts on December 11, 2011.
Additional contributions by Richard Walker.
Site Details
| Federal Cost | Total Cost |
|---|---|
| $6,138,000.00 | $6,138,000.00 |
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