Aldrich Change Bridge

Restoration of the Aldrich Change Bridge

The restoration of the Aldrich Change Bridge has been called one of the most successful and remarkable partnerships between citizens and local, state and federal governments in the history of the restoration of the erie canal. "This project is a triumph of the volunteer," said Jay Harding of Palmrya, indefatigable project coordinator. He has led a group of 15 men and women who have labored without pay to rescue the bridge from the icy waters of Ganargua Creek in 1996, repair, replicate and restore its parts, and reassemble it near its original Wayne County home spanning the Old Erie Canal and uniting the towns of Palmyra and Macedon. Historian Eric DeLony, chief of Historic American Engineering Record, said the effort is "one of the most important bridge restoration projects in the country today." Once the bridge is back on its abutments, the volunteers will install the wooden decking and (non original) metal railing. A fund-raising dance sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in October will help raise the additional money needed to complete the reflecting pond underneath and landscape the site. A formal dedication of the completed bridge is expected next spring. Harding said he expects there will be a few teary eyes and men with lumps in their throats when the bridge is once again standing tall. "All the hard work over the past 7 and a half years will come together. It's an honor to be a part of this effort, the thousands of volunteer man hours that were devoted to make something magnificent happen." He said he has a great feeling of satisfaction in knowing that "everyone throughout the world will be able to come to this park and share this historic site."

About the Aldrich Change Bridge

When the Erie Canal opened in 1825, mules pulled packet boats from Albany to Buffalo. The towpath on which the mules walked switched from north to south side of the canal, seeking better footing for the animals and helping them to avoid the noise and confusion of towns along the canal. Special bridges, known as change bridges, allowed the animals to cross the canal. The Aldrich Change Bridge is one of only two such bridges to survive today. It first spanned the Old Erie Canal north of a weighlock building in Rochester. Then it was divided in half, and one half was moved to the Old Erie Canal at the Palmyra-Macedon line. Known as Crossover Bridge #35, it stood on stone abutments until 1915, when the state abandoned the Enlarged Erie and constructed the wider Barge Canal to the north. A local farmer bought the bridge and moved it to span Ganargua Creek, where it remained until 1996, when an ice storm brought it crashing into the water. LaVerne M. Sessler of Waterloo, whose company demolishes bridges, came to the rescue on the coldest day of 1997, donating his equipment and crew to raise the bridge, then a tangle of rods and tubes, from the icy waters. The town of Macedon stored the pieces at its highway barn while volunteers cleaned, sorted, and worked to raise money to restore and repair the pieces. The project received a major boost when it was awarded grants from the HUD Canal Corridor Initiative and State Sen. Michael Nozzolio and Assemblyman Bob Oaks. The Village of Palmyra serves as lead agency, receiving and managing the grants. Students from the University of Buffalo measured and diagramed the bridge components so it could be included in the Library of Congress. Wayne County Planning Departments scoured the county to locate historic stones from abandoned railroad bridges and Wayne County Highway department transported the stones to the site, where they were catalogued by engineering interns from Clough Harbor and Associates and assembled by Nicoletta Construction of Clyde and Ken Pulcini of Palmyra.

The Aldrich Change Bridge was designed by Squire Whipple, dean of American bridge designers. It was manufactured by John Hutchinson in Waterford, NY in 1858. The 74-foot by 14-foot cast and wrought iron bridge is Whipple's oldest known surviving structure and one of the oldest iron truss bridges surviving in the country. Whipple, a civil engineer, designed and fabricated dozens, if not hundreds, of bowstring arch truss bridges for the Erie Canal when it was enlarged in 1850. He started one of the earliest bridge fabricating companies in the country, and wrote a book on bridge building in 1847. The Aldrich Change Bridge is a testimony to his outstanding engineering achievements. "The beauty of this bridge is its simplicity," said Sessler. "It is more than a great engineering feat. It is a work of art." The structure has been documented with drawings by Historic Architectural Engineering Record and the National Park Service and is part of the Library of Congress, insuring that information about this nationally significant structure will be available to the public for future generations.