Canalside Rail Trail Bridge

Canalside Rail Trail Bridge
Coordinates	42°34′45.3″N 72°34′29.53″W / 42.579250°N 72.5748694°W / 42.579250; -72.5748694Coordinates: 42°34′45.3″N 72°34′29.53″W / 42.579250°N 72.5748694°W / 42.579250; -72.5748694
Carries	Canalside Rail Trail
Crosses	Connecticut River
Locale	Deerfield / Montague, Franklin County, Massachusetts, USA
ID number	D06033/M28019
Characteristics
Design	Through truss bridge 1 × Whipple truss 2 × Warren truss
Material	Cast or Wrought Iron, on masonry piers
No. of spans	3
Piers in water	2
History
Opened	1880, 1936, 2006
Canalside Rail Trail Bridge Location in Massachusetts

The Canalside Rail Trail Bridge (also known as the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (Turners Falls Branch) Bridge) is a former New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (Turner Falls Branch) rail bridge across the Connecticut River between Deerfield and Montague, Massachusetts. The bridge (Massachusetts numbers: D06033/M28019) is on the Massachusetts Historic Bridge Inventory as a "Historic Metal Truss Bridge", currently the sixth oldest metal truss bridge on the state-wide historic registry. The Canalside Rail Trail, completed in Spring 2008, incorporates this bridge.

Originally built in 1880 by Keystone Bridge Co., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, two of its three spans were knocked off their piers by the floating Montague City Covered Bridge during the 1936 flood. Subsequently, those spans were rebuilt and replaced in 1936 by the Phoenix Bridge Company, Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. The remaining span of the original bridge is the oldest surviving span across the Connecticut River. The older span is a Whipple truss design. The newer spans use a modified Warren truss design (vertical truss members are added to the traditional form of a Warren truss).

The bridge was refurbished in 2006 to be part of the new Canalside Rail Trail. However, though the bridge can now be used, the refurbishing is not complete as of July 2007. The western pier has some stones out of place and some stones fallen off. There is currently work going on to fix this issue.

Looking west along the length of the bridge from the eastern end, you can see the newly constructed wooden bridge deck and the safety railings.

This image shows the plate bolted to the western end of the first of the "new" spans put up in 1936.