{"nrhp_refnum":"00000076","name":"Bardwell's Ferry Bridge","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"Bardwell's Ferry Rd. over the Deerfield R.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Conway","county":"Franklin County","state":"MA","lat":42.55572736400006,"lon":-72.67766130199993,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2000-02-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Engineering","Transportation"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 198-foot iron lenticular-truss highway bridge built in 1882 over the Deerfield River on Bardwell's Ferry Road, linking Conway and Shelburne in Franklin County, Massachusetts.","why_significant":"It is a rare and largely unaltered example of a lenticular truss bridge, with only ten surviving in Massachusetts and fewer than fifty nationally. It is an early example of the type, built under William O. Douglas's 1878 patent, and is one of the longest documented lenticular spans in the United States. It also replaced a long-standing ferry crossing and a wooden bridge, tying it to local transportation history.","narrative":"Spanning the Deerfield River between Conway and Shelburne, Massachusetts, this 198-foot iron bridge was built in 1882 to carry Bardwell's Ferry Road about 40 feet above the water. Its lens-shaped trusses, made of riveted iron plates, lattice posts and pinned eye-bars, follow a design patented by William O. Douglas in 1878 and were fabricated by the Corrugated Metal Company, precursor of the Berlin Iron Bridge Company of Connecticut. The bridge replaced a wooden Howe-truss structure blown off its abutments in a January 1882 storm, which had itself succeeded a ferry run by the Bardwell family from the late 1700s. Only ten lenticular-truss bridges survive in Massachusetts, and fewer than fifty are known nationally. This one is early, unusually long and little altered apart from a new deck and a reinforced west abutment. It was listed for its engineering importance and its role in the local road network.","period_of_significance":"1882-1949","architect_builder":"William O. Douglas, designer/patentee; Berlin Iron Bridge Co., East Berlin, CT, builder","architectural_style":"No style (metal: cast and wrought iron; lenticular truss)","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Remarkably intact; road deck replaced and west abutment reinforced with concrete. Still used for road transportation.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:05.020572-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/45/7951/63795145/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/00000076.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000076/3f5ddd4534-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000076/3f5ddd4534-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 2.0","author":"Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bardwell%27s_Ferry_Bridge_viewed_from_north_in_2014.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Doug Kerr from Albany, NY, United States</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bardwell%27s_Ferry_Bridge_viewed_from_north_in_2014.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795145","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardwell%27s_Ferry_Bridge","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4860234"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/franklin-county/bardwells-ferry-bridge-00000076/"}