Bridge Street

Bridge Street runs west from Boston Road at the Corner Bridge in North Billerica to Treble Cove Road. It is the western approach to the bridge that replaced the old bridge at The Fordway. The Fordway bridge was carried away by a flood about 1698, and a new bridge "lately erected" at the Corner was paid for under an act of March 20, 1699; on Sept. 25, 1699 committees of Billerica and Chelmsford altered the road between the towns to meet it. The earliest road west of the river, the Treble Cove road, began at the Fordway and ran southwest toward Concord, and a way from the new bridge to that road must have followed soon, but no laying out of Bridge Street has been found in the town records.

Before 1899 the road had no name of its own. The street naming committee of 1897 left it out, and it first appears in the Billerica Historical Society's list, accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899, as "Bridge street, from corner Bridge to Treble Cove road." The name comes from the Corner Bridge at its east end, which was known by 1919 as the "Red Bridge." When the new concrete bridge carrying Boston Road was opened in 1921, the old bridge was kept for local traffic, and in 1931 it was posted "Closed." Bridge Street still began at the old bridge in 1953, when a zoning article described land "easterly along said Bridge Street to the 'Corner Bridge,' so-called, over the Concord River one hundred fifty (150) feet," and the town's street list of 1956 still gave it as "Corner Bridge to Treble Cove Rd."

The road was gravel until the 1930s. The town warrant of 1932 asked for $1,500 "to tar and gravel Bridge Street from Treble Cove Road to Boston Road," and in 1937 a relief project of 2,640 feet widened, graveled, rolled and tarred it to a width of 18 feet. A tar seal coat was put on its whole length in 1943 and an asphalt seal in 1947, and in 1948 the town voted a water main in Bridge Street and Treble Cove Road. In 1963 the town was asked to spend state grants "for the purpose of reconstructing Bridge Street from Treble Cove Road to Boston Road." The selectmen relocated about 2,500 feet of it on a plan of November 1966, and in April 1967 the town meeting took up its acceptance and set aside $28,442.07 of state aid "for the reconstruction of Bridge Street."

It was formally accepted as a public way at the Fall Town Meeting of October 2016, which voted, 124 to 19, under Chapter 82, sections 21 to 24, of the General Laws, to accept the 57 old roads "the layout of which is shown on the official Town of Billerica Map of 1831." The town manager explained that the state already treated these roads as public ways, but the town had no record of accepting them and so could not spend money to maintain them. The list gives it from Treble Cove Road to Boston Road. Before that, the relocated part of the street had been made a public way in 1967: on April 1, 1967 town meeting voted, 96 to 29 on a rising vote, that the selectmen take "by eminent domain or purchase, Bridge Street, approximately 2,500 feet, from Boston Road to Treble Cove Road," as shown on the plan of its relocation of November 1966.

Historic Buildings

Name	Alternate	Address	Built	Moved	Demolished
A. Mears House		37 Bridge St	1852		2015
M. Lawrence House		7 Bridge St	1852		1984

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): the Treble Cove road began at the Fordway; the first bridge over the Concord was at the Fordway
2. Hazen 1883: new bridge at the Corner, act of March 20, 1699 for the bridge "lately erected in Bilrica"
3. John Farmer, Historical Memoir of Billerica (1816): bridge moved "considerably higher up the river" and road altered Sept. 25, 1699
4. 1899 Annual Report: Historical Society street list, "Bridge street, from corner Bridge to Treble Cove road"
5. 1900 Annual Report: street list as accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899, including Bridge street
6. 1919 selectmen's report: new bridge proposed near the "Red Bridge or Corner Bridge, so called"
7. 1921 report: new Concord River bridge opened in the spring of 1921
8. 1931 highway report: Red Bridge fence replaced and the bridge posted "Closed"
9. 1937 highway report: Bridge Street widened, graveled, rolled and tarred for 2,640 feet at 18 feet wide
10. 1953 warrant, Article 138: Bridge Street ran 150 feet east of Boston Road to the "Corner Bridge," so-called
11. 1956 street list: "Bridge St. Corner Bridge to Treble Cove Rd."
12. 1967 town meeting: acceptance of Bridge Street as relocated from Boston Road to Treble Cove Road on a plan of November 1966
13. Annual Report 2017: Fall Town Meeting, October 2016, Article 36 accepts as public ways the roads shown on the official town map of 1831 (124 to 19)
14. Annual Report 2017: warrant for Article 36, the 1831 list of roads with their termini
15. Annual Report 1967: town meeting of April 1, 1967 votes to take the relocated Bridge Street by eminent domain or purchase (96 to 29)