Hastings Bridge, Campground Road spanning Worcester, Nashua & Portland Division, Boston & Maine Railroad, Sterling, Worcester County, MA

Significance: Hastings Bridge represents a type of construction that was once common but rarely survives, the wooden truss. It is the oldest extant timber pony truss bridge identified in the Massachusetts statewide bridge survey. Ubiquitous in mid-19th-century transportation systems, wooden trusses were recognized as inferior to iron by the 1890s. The continued use on the Boston and Main Railroad in the 1890s provides vivid material evidence of the company's economic difficulties in the 1890s, near the end of a period of acquisition and growth that made it the dominant railroad in northern New England.

Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N796

Survey number: HAER MA-83

Building/structure dates: 1892 Initial Construction

sterling mass hastings bridge hastings bridge campground campground road worcester nashua portland division portland division boston maine railroad maine railroad worcester county massachusetts wayne fleming laura haring historic american engineering record matthew roth kelly e young photo ultra high resolution high resolution new england library of congress

1969 - 1980

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/

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