Bridle Road

Bridle Road runs north from River Street, on the west side of the Concord River below the Centre bridge, through the River Pines neighborhood to Bridge Street near the Corner Bridge. It takes its name from what it once was: a bridle road, a way wide enough for a horse and rider but not for carts. The warrant for the town meeting of 1909 calls it "the Bridle Road, so called," and asked for $700 "for the reconstruction and rebuilding" of it; the meeting voted $200 to repair it, and in 1910 it voted $500 "for building the Bridle Road." That year the highway surveyor reported, "I have cut the wood 50 feet wide, pulled the stumps out, and built a roadbed 20 feet wide and 3,399 feet long and graveled 396 feet."

The older bridle way that gave the road its name is not described in any record found. The town paid for "repairs on bridle road" in 1866, but that entry does not say where the road was. It should not be confused with the "bridle way" of 1730 and 1737 on West Street, the road from the Centre to the Centre bridge that is now River Street. Bridle Road does not appear on the 1831 town map or among the roads of that map accepted in 2016.

The road was opened through woodland that was soon cut into summer lots. Water mains were laid on Bridge Street and Bridle Road in 1914 and 1915, and the directory of 1919 describes "Bridle Road from Bridge rd n c[orner] bridge to River n Concord river," with Linden Street and Woodlawn Avenue running off it. A new bridge on the road was built in 1922 and replaced by a culvert in 1936. In 1927 and 1928 the River Pines subdivisions laid out the "wood" avenues (Alderwood, Balsamwood, Briarwood, Pinewood, Rosewood and others) on both sides of it, and the annual town meeting of February 9, 1935 voted to accept "the private way now known as Bridle Road as it now exists extending northerly from River Street and continuing through River Pines and River Pines Shores."

The road had been oiled by 1935, was "oiled and rolled the entire length" in 1937, and was tarred for 3,100 feet in 1940, when a Works Progress Administration project to widen it to 30 feet for 6,864 feet was begun and suspended. It was resurfaced with hot top in 1965. In 1950 the town named the corner of River Street and Bridle Road Joseph M. Walsh Square, in honor of Joseph Marvin Walsh, who gave his life in the service of his country in 1944.

References

1. 1909 warrant, Article 17: $700 for reconstructing and rebuilding "the Bridle Road, so called"
2. 1909 town meeting: $200 voted to repair the Bridle Road
3. 1910 town meeting, Article 25: $500 raised for building the Bridle Road
4. 1910 highway report: woods cut 50 feet wide, roadbed 20 feet wide and 3,399 feet long built on Bridle Road
5. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): West Street (now River Street) a "bridle-way" in 1730, not this road
6. 1924 highway report: Bridle Road Bridge repaired
7. 1935 annual town meeting, Article 35: Bridle Road accepted as a public way from River Street through River Pines and River Pines Shores
8. 1936 highway report: wooden bridge on Bridle Road replaced with a 48 inch metal culvert
9. 1937 highway report: Bridle Road oiled and rolled the entire length
10. 1940 report: WPA Bridle Road Project, widening to 30 feet for 6,864 feet (suspended)
11. 1950 warrant, Article 31: corner of River Street and Bridle Road named Joseph M. Walsh Square
12. 1956 report: index of accepted streets, Bridle Rd. from River Street north, 2-9-35
13. 1965 report: hot top program completed, Bridle Road resurfaced