Corner Bridge

The Corner Bridge carries the road from Billerica to Chelmsford and Lowell across the Concord River at "the Corner" in North Billerica. For more than two centuries the bridge stood at the end of Bridge Street, where a busy neighborhood grew up around the crossing, with Jones' Corner and Preston's Corner on the east bank. It was sometimes called Preston's Bridge, and from about 1918 the Red Bridge. Since 1921 Boston Road (Route 3A) has crossed on a concrete bridge a short distance to the south.

After the The Fordway bridge was carried away by a flood, Chelmsford asked in December 1698 for a meeting with Billerica, Groton and Dunstable "about the new building of a bridge over Concord riuer." Captain Danforth refused to go, and town clerk Joseph Tompson went alone. The towns agreed to build "farther up the river, at the 'corner,'" and on March 20, 1699 the General Court ordered Groton to pay its share of 24 pounds 10 shillings to "Major Hinksman, Major Ting, & Mr. John Lane, undertakers for the building of the bridge lately erected in Bilrica." Hazen explains the move: with only one bridge over the Concord, Billerica wanted it nearer the center of town, while to the towns above "the difference was trifling." In 1737 the bridge fell down and was rebuilt "after some discussion as to the location."

In 1873 "the old wooden bridge gave place to a handsome and light iron structure." On August 4, 1896 the town voted to "place a new bridge over the Concord River at the Corner," and the Boston Bridge Co. built a new steel bridge for $1,550, taking the old bridge in part payment; the whole work cost $2,240.04. The iron floor was replanked many times. In September 1918 an 18-ton motor truck "crashed through the flooring," and the bridge was half rebuilt the next year.

In 1919 the selectmen proposed a new bridge near "the present Red Bridge or Corner Bridge," built with federal and state aid at an estimated $54,000. At the annual meeting of February 14, 1920 the town voted unanimously to borrow $10,000 for its one-sixth share, with Middlesex County, the Commonwealth and the federal government paying the rest. The new bridge straightened the state road by running north and south instead of east and west, and land damages were paid to the heirs of Dudley Foster and the estate of Martha S. Preston. The work was in charge of the state engineers, and the contractor, James H. Fannon, began in May 1920. The bridge "was opened last spring," the 1921 report said. It is a reinforced concrete arch of three spans (50, 50 and 65 feet), 190 feet long, and still carries Route 3A.

The old steel bridge was left standing on the old road. It was posted "Closed" in 1931, and in 1942 a WPA war salvage project took down the "old Iron Bridge across Concord River north of Boston Road Concrete Bridge." Its stone pier can still be seen in the middle of the river.

References

1. MACRIS BIL.912
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): the bridge moved to the Corner in 1699, rebuilt 1737, iron bridge 1873
3. Annual Report 1896: Special Town Meeting of Aug. 4, 1896 votes a new bridge over the Concord River at the Corner
4. Annual Report 1896: new steel bridge at the Corner by the Boston Bridge Co.
5. Annual Report 1918: an 18-ton truck crashes through the flooring of the Red Bridge
6. Annual Report 1919: Selectmen propose a Federal Aid bridge near the Red Bridge or Corner Bridge
7. Annual Report 1920: Town Meeting of Feb. 14, 1920 votes to borrow $10,000 for the new Concord River bridge
8. Annual Report 1920: construction of the new bridge by James H. Fannon under the State engineers
9. Annual Report 1921: the new Concord River bridge opened in the spring of 1921
10. Annual Report 1931: the Red Bridge posted Closed
11. Annual Report 1942: WPA war salvage, demolition of the old iron bridge north of the Boston Road concrete bridge