Frog Bridge

Frog Bridge
One of the four copper frogs on the bridge
Coordinates	41°42′36″N 72°12′34″W / 41.71°N 72.2094°W / 41.71; -72.2094
Carries	South St. (CT 661)
Crosses	Willimantic River and New England Central Railroad
Official name	Thread City Crossing
Named for	Named after the city's history with thread mills
Owner	Connecticut Department of Transportation
Preceded by	A 1857 stone arch bridge, currently a garden bridge (CT 601)
Characteristics
Design	Simple Compression Arch Bridge
Material	Steel
Total length	476 feet (145 m)
Width	66 feet (20 m)
No. of spans	1
No. of lanes	4
History
Designer	Connecticut Department of Transportation
Constructed by	O & G Industries
Construction begin	March 1999 (1999-03)
Construction end	Fall 2001
Construction cost	$13 million
Opened	September 2000 (2000-09)
Frog Bridge Location in Connecticut

The Frog Bridge (Officially the Thread City Bridge) is a bridge located in Willimantic, Connecticut which carries South Street (CT 661) across the Willimantic River. It is known as the Frog Bridge because it has 4 copper frogs located on each end of the bridge, sitting on top of concrete thread spools.

It is designed and named this way because of a story called "The Battle of the Frogs" which in 1754, a large-scale death of frogs in a pond called Frog Pond, about a mile east of Windham Center. In turn of the wide-spread deaths of frogs, many people thought it was the French and Indians coming to the town and killing residents of the small town.

The bridge was built to replace a 1857 stone arch bridge located in the middle of the mill complex, which was going to be replaced as early as 1872. Another effort to replace the old bridge was made at the turn of the 20th century, but ended up with the Willimantic Footbridge. In 1986, then-state legislator John Lescoe introduced a bill to fund a feasibility study for a new bridge over the Willimantic River. The funding was finally approved in 1991.

The first design for the bridge, just had the spools of thread and not the frogs, but after the community disapproved the bridge, a architect was hired from the state, and added the frogs to the bridge design. The bridge started construction in March 1999 and the bridge opened in September 2000. The bridge was done then, but the surrounding area (part of the bridge project) was not completed until the Fall of 2001. In 2002, the FHA awarded the Frog Bridge an honorable mention for Excellence in Highway Design, in the category of Historic Preservation. The bridge built over a man-made waterfall, which used to provide power for the Jillson Mills.

The bridge is a simple compression iron arch bridge that crosses the Willimantic River and a railroad line owned by the New England Central Railroad. It carries South St. to connect Route 32 to Route 66. It has 4 concrete thread spools, and another 4 concrete with copper frogs, the frogs eye's have gold leaf covering it. Outside of the frogs, the bridge is more like a conventional highway bridge.