Butler Bridge, Spans Housatonic River on Butler Road (North Glendale Road), Stockbridge, Berkshire County, MA

Significance: The Butler Bridge is an apparently unique example of a small highway bridge designed by the pre-eminent American bridge engineer George Shattuck Morison, who is remembered primarily for his long-span railroad bridges and his service with the Panama Canal Commission. The bridge is a single-span, wrought-iron, half-through Pratt-type truss, supported on masonry pillars. Morison's involvement in the building and design of a small highway bridge is unusual, and appears to have resulted from his personal and professional associations in the Stockbridge area. The Butler Bridge is the oldest metal truss bridge known to survive in Berkshire County, and one of the ten oldest truss bridges identified in the Massachusetts Department of Public Works database. It is also the only known surviving example of Morison's work in his native state.

Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: FN-29

Survey number: HAER MA-115

Building/structure dates: 1882 Initial Construction

vehicular bridges stockbridge mass butler bridge butler bridge housatonic housatonic river butler road glendale north glendale road stockbridge berkshire berkshire county massachusetts lola bennett eric delony morgen fleisig patrick harshbarger john healey historic american engineering record gary kleinschmidt massachusetts department of public works massachusetts historical commission george s morison chris payne patricia reese mark rowan daniel l schodek rudolf sosef martin stupich photo ultra high resolution high resolution infrastructure library of congress

1969 - 1980

Library of Congress

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