Aldrich Towing-Path Change Bridge, Spanning New York State Heritage Trail, Aqueduct Park (moved from Macedon, NY), Palmyra, Wayne County, NY

Significance: The Aldrich Change Bridge is the oldest dated iron bridge in New York State and one of only two bridges known to survive from the first enlargement of the Erie Canal. In addition to its importance as an artifact of one of the nation's earliest and most significant public works, it draws attention to one of the lesser known and largely overlooked designs of Squire Whipple, nineteenth-century America's foremost theoretician-practitioner of truss bridge design. Fabricated in the Waterford, New York, iron works of George W. Eddy and erected by John Hutchinson of Troy, the Aldrich change bridge was a product of the rich industrial complex then flourishing at the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers in eastern New York. Hutchinson emerged as a prominent contractor for iron bridge superstructures during the years of the canal's first enlargement, competing directly with Whipple himself.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N507
Survey number: HAER NY-315