State Denies Timber Bridge For Chatham

After months of speculation, flurries of correspondence, several meetings, countless volunteer hours and, as one selectman put it, “a cast worthy of a Russian novel,” the question of whether the town can get a wooden bridge funded with state money consisted of a one word answer, "No".

Even if the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Keeper of the National Register ruled that the bridge, constructed in the 1850s, should be on the register of historic places, the state would still stick with its concrete and steel structure replacement plan. Even if companies showed that a wooden bridge would last more than 50 years, the state wouldn’t abandon its proposed design.

Both the state and federal agencies say the bridge is not historical because the top of it was rebuilt in 1981. They believe the Keeper will agree with them.

State Denies Timber Bridge For Chatham