Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II, Part 41

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716

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LATER BBIDGE CONSTRUCTION-Participation by the state in building the Seekonk River bridges marked the beginning of a new policy with reference to bridge construction, resting upon the recognition of the fact that a bridge, while serving primarily residents of a town in which the bridge is located, or the residents of towns connected by a bridge across a water- way that constitutes a town boundary, may serve also a large body of the public non-resident in the town or towns. As part of its public road construction program the state has erected bridges connecting links of the highway system. Additional to highway construction loans, bond issues for bridges have been approved in 1916, 1920, 1922 and 1926. The responsibility for maintaining a bridge that has become part of the state public roads system by lying within any line of road constructed by the state* or by lying between and connecting two roads con- structed by the statet rests upon the state rather than the town. Through extension of the state system of public roads most of the much-traveled bridges in Rhode Island are state- constructed and maintained if located within towns or between towns.

The state public roads system does not penetrate cities; bridges within cities or between cities are maintained by cities. Thus Pawtucket was authorized in 1904 to issue bonds to finance the building of streets and bridges. Five years later, after Pawtucket and Central Falls had neglected to rebuild the North Main Street bridge across the Blackstone River, con- necting the two cities, the General Assembly appointed a bridge commission and charged the construction to the cities. The constitutionality of the bridge commission was sustained .¿ In this instance the construction of the bridge was financed by Pawtucket, and Central Falls was required to reimburse Pawtucket for a part of the expenditure later. On the other hand, Rhode Island Stone Bridge, across the Seaconnet River, connecting the Island of Rhode Island with the mainland, has been maintained and reconstructed from time to time by the state of Rhode Island. In 1911 the state ordered new concrete bridges constructed on the sites of the Kelley and Barrington bridges, which previously had been maintained by Warren and Barrington. The Mount Hope Bridge, across Bristol Ferry, is a toll bridge, title to which will pass to the state of Rhode Island after the construction company has recouped itself from tolls for the expense of building and made a fair profit on the venture while under operation. The need for a new bridge to replace the forty-year-old Washington Bridge, which had become inadequate to carry traffic conveniently and satisfactorily, evoked discussion of the responsibility for construction. The new bridge, completed in 1930, connects Providence and East Providence directly, but is also a most important link connecting state highway systems east and west of Narragansett Bay. Eventually the construction of the bridge itself

*Johnston vs. Lee, 38 R. I. 316.

+Johnston vs. Lee, 39 R. I. 528.

#Newell vs. Franklin, 30 R. I. 258 ; Blais vs. Franklin, 30 R. I. 413 ; Blais vs. Franklin, 31 R. I. 95.

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was undertaken by the state of Rhode Island, and financed by two bond issues for a total of $3,500,000. East Providence and Providence, each on its own side, were required to condemn and pay for the property taken for approaches. The bridge rests upon granite piers, the foundations of which are carried to bedrock. It is constructed of concrete reinforced with steel, and faced with cut granite. It is massive in proportion, but built in graceful lines with turrets that lend an ease to the sweep because of the perception of height. Between turrets the structure is arched except at the middle, directly over the channel. The draw is of the tilt- lift type, but is carried so high above mean high water mark that it need be opened only for vessels with tall masts of a type that rarely visit the Seekonk River. The approach from Providence is a long ramp faced with cut granite starting at East Street, just at the crest of Tockwotton Hill; the approach carries over intervening streets. A shorter ramp on the East Providence side includes a viaduct over the railroad tracks of the New Haven system. On the Providence side the bridge approach meets a new broad highway, the Fox Point Boule- vard, which stretches west directly to Point Street Bridge across the Providence River, thus affording connections west and south, and taps six city streets leading to the north before Point Street Bridge is reached. On the East Providence side a broad connecting street affords access to Taunton Avenue, Warren Avenue, and the Barrington Parkway, radiating north- east, east and southeast toward the north, east and south trunk lines of the state highway system along the east side of Narragansett Bay.

THE CHANGES OF A CENTURY-The nineteenth century witnessed the substitution (I) of steamboats for sailing packets in passenger and freight transportation within and in and out of Narragansett Bay; (2) of steam railroads for the Blackstone Canal and stage coaches traveling on turnpikes; (3) of electric tramways for horsecars; and the beginning of the building of a state system of public roads and bridges to accommodate bicycles and automo- biles. Early in the twentieth century (1) steam railroads and electric tramways had been consolidated each into a system of nearly equal mileage; (2) steam railroads monopolized long hauls; (3) electric tramways monopolized intra-urban traffic; (4) steam railroads and electric tramways were active competitors for patronage on short interurban lines, the advan- tage resting with the tramways because of more frequent service, and because, using public highways instead of private rights of way, they received passengers and discharged them with greater regard for the convenience of the latter. Another factor favoring the electric cars was the standard fare-the popular nickel-contrasted with the mileage rate collected by the steam railroads. The railroad company had met competition on one line by electrifying the Providence, Warren and Bristol, and introducing a zone system of standard nickel fares.

Not all electric railways were profitable; with the introduction of the trolley system and its early success in urban traffic and with the extension of it to interurban traffic, which also yielded profits in the first instances, new lines in every direction were planned, corporate char- ters were sought, capital was obtained by sale of stock or bond issue, and service was inaugu- rated. Interurban lines were profitable as they served established communities, and some- times also as they furnished the transportation system which made possible the opening up of new territory for home building and which induced people to remove from congested city and town neighborhoods out into the country to places made convenient by regular car service at a low fare. But population did not invariably follow new lines, the amount of interurban traffic was sometimes overestimated, and promoters found that patronage was not sufficient to cover operating expenses and earn dividends. In consequence many lines had been aban- doned even before the automobile had become a competitor of both railroads and tramways.

The rivalry between steam and electric systems was abated temporarily while the tram- way companies endured the New Haven captivity resulting from the success of the railroad

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interests in Wall Street. Reaching out further to control transportation within its chosen province of Southern New England, the New Haven company succeeded also in establish- ing practically a monopoly of steamboat traffic in and out of Narragansett Bay. The one competing rival suffered a crushing blow financially and in loss of prestige through the wreck of the steamboat "Larchmont," on February 11-12, 1907. Resolutions adopted in the General Assembly characterized the "Larchmont" disaster as "a calamity unparalleled in the history of the navigation of the waters in the vicinity of Rhode Island." The "Larchmont," ploughing its way through a blinding blizzard in Block Island Sound, met a small heavily laden, low- lying sailing craft in collision, and sank in open water before it could be beached. The hole opened in the hull was so large that fires were quickly extinguished and the vessel lost head- way; buffeted by heavy gales it went down, carrying with it most of its passengers, officers and crew, the loss of life totalling 131. Many of those who left the wreck in boats or on rafts or on the upper deck, which floated away as the hulk disappeared, were drowned or frozen to death in the terrific winter storm. The weather was the coldest of the season, and a snowstorm raged through the night, the fall in Providence being almost the heaviest in years. U. S. S. "Chickasaw," attempting to answer the "Larchmont's" call for help, was forced to return to port. Three small fishing schooners, the "Elsie," Captain John A. Smith ; the "Clara E.," Captain Ralph E. Dodge; and the "Theresa," Captain R. A. Sanchez, all out of Block Island, undertook the work of rescue or salvaging dead bodies. They persisted when other craft fled the violence of wind and wave. For days after the disaster ice-covered bodies were found floating in the neighborhood of the wreck, or were cast upon the beaches of Block Island or the Rhode Island south shore, and for days harrowing scenes accompanied the identification of the dead in an improvised morgue. The following Block Islanders, all hardy fishermen, received the thanks of the General Assembly "for their heroism, persistence and endurance in scouring the tumultuous waters of Block Island Sound in the piercing cold of February 12 and 13, 1907, to succor the suffering survivors and recover the ice-cumbered bodies of the dead": Captain John W. Smith, G. Elwood Smith, Albert W. Smith, Harry L. Smith, Earl A. Smith, Jeremiah M. Littlefield, Edgar Littlefield and Louis E. Smith, of the schooner "Elsie"; Captain Ralph E. Dodge, William P. Dodge, William Dodge, Elmer Allen and Eugene Stenson, of the schooner "Clara E."; and Captain R. A. Sanchez, R. A. San- chez, Jr., Joseph Sanchez, Thomas Ferguson, Justin Thomas and Samuel Brown, of the schooner "Theresa."

Only once since the sinking of the "Larchmont" has there been a disaster approaching that in destruction of life. Leaving Newport, August 18, 1925, with a crowd of excursion- ists from Pawtucket and Central Falls, who had spent the day at the beach, the "Mackinack," steamer, was wrecked by boiler explosion, and fifty-three lives were lost before the vessel could be beached and the passengers removed by boats from the government stations and the harbor. The cause of the "Mackinack" disaster was a weakened boiler, which yielded to extra steam pressure and poured upon the passengers a scalding cloud of vapor, inflicting death or fearful wounds, from which many who were removed to hospitals died subsequently. A worse disaster was averted only by the pilot's prompt beaching of the vessel, and by the fact that the explosion happened so shortly after leaving the dock that help was available almost immediately from other boats in Newport harbor.

HARBOR DEVELOPMENT-Rhode Island was restive under the monopoly that controlled transportation and which tended, because of the New York financial interest in the New Haven company to route traffic in such manner that Narragansett Bay had become tributary to Man- hattan. Furthermore, there was early in the twentieth century a dawning realization that Narragansett Bay as a seaport must be deepened to accommodate the large vessels coming

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into use. The convention of the Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association in Providence, August 31-September 3, 1910, challenged Rhode Island to realize the possibilities of a splen- did harbor. A movement had already been inaugurated when in 1909, the people authorized the issuing of $500,000 bonds to finance the acquisition and improvement of shore property in Providence, Pawtucket and East Providence. A second harbor improvement loan was approved in 1912. The work of reconstruction was carried forward as an enterprise to which the state of Rhode Island, the city of Providence and the United States government contrib- uted. The state's share was the acquisition of shore property, riparian rights and tide-flowed land, preparatory to the construction of wharves, slips and piers. Not all that has been pur- chased by the state has been developed, but two state piers have been built.

State pier number one, in Providence, west of the river and east of Allen's Avenue, juts out 600 feet and provides docking facilities for two large ocean steamships at the same time. On the pier is a steel shed* 400 feet long, 100 feet wide and two stories high. The pier is connected by spur tracks with the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. It was used first by the S. S. "Venezia" of the Fabre Line (French), on December 17, 1913, and is still used by the Fabre Line, which maintains a direct passenger and freight service between Narragansett Bay and French and Mediterranean ports. The Fabre Line steamships are thoroughly modern; the queen of the fleet is the S. S. "Providence," which was constructed for the service in Narragansett Bay. Accommodations are provided on the state pier for a United States immigration station, and for United States customs, quarantine and other inspec- tion officers. The state property in connection with the pier fronts 700 feet on the river and contains 748,523 square feet. State pier number two is located on the east side of the See- konk River in Pawtucket. It consists of a solid masonry quay wall 700 feet front on the river ; the state land includes 170,000 square feet. This pier, because of the narrowness of the See- konk River and the depth of water alongside, does not project.

The share of Providence in the tripartite plan for improving the harbor consisted in building a seawall and municipal pier at Field's Point. This project involved the elimination of Field's Point as a geographical fact, by cutting away the sharp projection completely as the harbor line was drawn straight. With Field's Point went the clambake pavilion and the shore dinners that had made Field's Point famous the world over. The city built a seawall 3000 feet long, dredged the harbor in front and alongside to a depth of thirty-five feet, and reclaimed the tide-flowed flats behind part of the wall by washing down a hill by hydraulic power into the flats. The wall was completed in 1914, and two years later other work had been carried forward sufficiently to warrant formal dedication. Rail connections for the municipal wharf have been established with the New Haven and the projected Southern New England Railroad; and a marginal railway along the front of the wall and storage tracks on the flats provide ample accommodations for freight. The dock has been equipped with freight houses, traveling cranes and other modern machinery. Because of its docking facili- ties Providence has become an eastern port for a direct lumber trade with the Pacific coast through the Panama Canal, and a lumber distributing centre for New England and parts of the United States east of the Mississippi. It is possible to ship lumber at Seattle via the Pan- ama Canal and Narragansett Bay for ultimate delivery so far west as Michigan, with advan- tage in carriage rates and time as compared with overland shipment by railroad freight. The benefit of the improvement is not confined to the northern parts of Rhode Island, by any means; recognition of the strategic position of Narragansett Bay for coastwise commerce, including Atlantic-Pacific transportation, led to the choice of the northern end of the Island of Rhode Island, at Bristol Ferry in the town of Portsmouth, as place for another lumber dis-

* Destroyed by fire, 1931.

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tributing centre, and the construction of piers, yards, sheds and other buildings that rival the establishment at Providence.

The federal government's share in the improvement of Narragansett Bay consisted in dredging the channel of bay and harbor from the deep water of the lower reaches of the bay, to Providence. This work was undertaken under the provisions of an agreement that the state of Rhode Island and the city of Providence should expend for harbor and docking development an amount equal at least to federal appropriations. The state and city more than met the requirements of the contract with the United States, and the United States has dredged a channel that opens Narragansett Bay to the heaviest commerce carried in ships. Incidental to deepening the channel and clearing anchorage space, obstructions were removed, and the channel was straightened. The monopoly of wharves and docks that had been almost accomplished by acquisition or lease has been broken, and state and city can offer ample facilities for regular or transient commerce in ships. The better channel and harbor have attracted to Narragansett Bay also a large commerce in mineral oil, shipped direct from Gulf ports in Texas and Mexico to Rhode Island. The oil companies have bought or leased shore property, and have built tanks and piers, and established connections with the railroad system. From the shores of the bay long trains of tank cars carry the oil to all parts of New England. One company has established in Rhode Island a large oil refining plant.

NEW ENGLAND SOUTHERN -- Rhode Island welcomed in 1910 the Southern New Eng- land Railway Company and its project for building a new railroad connecting immediately at Palmer with the Northern New London Railroad, and eventually via the Central Vermont with the Canadian Grand Trunk. The incorporators of the Southern New England included Charles M. Hays and E. H. Fitzhugh of the Grand Trunk, which was seeking through Nar- ragansett Bay an ice-free harbor as the terminal for its lines in Canada. The charter granted by the General Assembly in 1910 empowered the Southern New England to condemn and to acquire a right of way and to build a railroad from the Massachusetts state line through the towns of northern Rhode Island, provided that the main line "shall run into or through the cities of Woonsocket, Pawtucket and Providence"; and also to construct and operate a lateral branch line to tidewater ending in Providence, Cranston or Warwick. The charter permitted the Southern New England to connect its tracks with the tracks of other railroads for the exchange of cars in the comity between railroads that exists in America, but forbade consolidation of the new railroad with the New Haven system or of the New Haven with the new road. The company was authorized to enter the Union station in Providence from the west, a right reserved for a new railroad in the contract under the terms of which the station had been constructed. The new company was required to file "the location of the said rail- road" before July 1, 19II, and to complete the construction before July 1, 1915. Rhode Island was enthusiastic, as it visioned in the advent of a new railroad the wealth of Canadian com- merce brought to the shores of Narragansett Bay, and specifically Narragansett Bay as a sea- port for Canada. Very unfortunately for the Southern New England, Charles M. Hays, who had been the most aggressive champion of the Grand Trunk extension, was a passenger on the White Star liner "Titanic" on its maiden voyage, and was lost at sea when the "Titanic" sank in the disaster of April 14-15, 1912. The work of surveying and acquiring a right of way, and of building roadbeds and foundations for bridges progressed steadily for a time, but eventually was abandoned, although the General Assembly more than once extended the time in which the new road might be completed.

The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad was a persistent opponent of the new project. In a particular instance the New Haven extended a freight yard between Woon-

R. I .- 54

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socket and Blackstone across the proposed right of way, thus to constrain the Southern New England, which in the exercise of eminent domain to acquire a right of way, could condemn the property of another railroad only for the purpose of carrying its own tracks under by tunnel or over by bridge, to undertake an engineering project in overhead construction that was disheartening because of the probable expenditure necessitated. In 1930 an effort to revive the Southern New England was undertaken, the project contemplating renewal of the charter and purchase of the right of way and the roadbed and bridge foundations. The New Haven Company opposed the proposition, urging that the port of Providence needed "tide- water terminal facilities in the form of additional piers and a grain elevator, and such market- ing, purchasing and banking agencies as will be required by the grain and other traffic using the port." The New Haven asserted also that its own rail connections afforded fourteen different routes to all parts of the United States and Canada, as follows: A direct route to Oswego and Lake Ontario via the New York, Ontario & Western, owned and operated by the New Haven; and connections with the Canadian National via Willimantic or via Worcester and the Boston & Maine; with the Canadian Pacific via Lowell or Worcester and the Boston & Maine; with the New York Central west to Chicago, via Worcester and the Boston & Albany; with Erie, Pennsylvania, on Lake Erie, via Maybrook or via Fitchburg or Wor- cester and the Boston & Maine-Delaware & Hudson; with the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western via Maybrook; with the Lehigh Valley via Maybrook or New York; with the Penn- sylvania system via New York; with the Baltimore & Ohio-Central Railway of New Jersey- Reading via Maybrook. The New Haven suggested also the advantages accruing to New York as a centre for export traffic because of the New York barge canal, and to Montreal and St. John because of the Welland and Lachine canals. The import commerce of Providence during the year ending June 30, 1928, was: Coal, 36,501 tons; petroleum, 183,365 tons; cement, 14,634 tons; salt, 1671 tons ; provisions, 1243 tons ; lumber, 17,109 tons; miscella- neous, 152 tons. The export commerce was 2915 tons.

The New Haven argument continued :

In the early days the service for Providence was provided by several independent railroads. As the rail- roads improved their service and increased their traffic the several independent companies came under a com- mon control as a public necessity, so that the through routes that are now available would be possible and that the same terminal facilities could be used for all the traffic without additional expense to the shipper. . Providence has one advantage enjoyed by few ports. Both sides of the harbors are served by the same railroad, permitting the development of the entire harbor on an equal basis. Each pier constructed along the shores of Providence harbor can have a physical connection with railroad facilities already in existence. The tremendous investment usually required to connect new steamship piers with the railroad will be unnecessary at Providence, and it will not be necessary to establish any terminal railroad to serve the piers. Adequate track and yard facilities easily accessible to any new piers that may be constructed, are already in existence at Providence with sufficient excess capacity to take care of any increased traffic that may move through the port. . . . The advantages enjoyed by Providence through being served by a single railroad are now sought by the ports served by several railroads. Expensive belt line railroads are even operated through the public streets at some ports to connect the piers and industries with the several railroads. With a suitable harbor, reasonable port regulations and port charges, proper terminal facilities and adequate rail service to the interior, all available, the next step in the development of the port is to induce the steamship lines and the import and export traffic to use the port.

PASSING OF ELECTRIC TRACTION-The prosperity of electric tramways endured for scarcely a quarter of a century. Even sooner than that lines that had been constructed with- out assurance of patronage and with a rashness that suggested speculation, were discontinued and abandoned. So early as 1912 all tramway companies had begun to measure the effect of automobile competition in reduced earnings. The purchase price of gasoline cars was grad-

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ually reduced as cheaper models were introduced and mass production made economy in con- struction possible. The automobile tended to become not only the family pleasure car com- peting with the tramcar on Sundays and holidays, but also the means whereby the owner trav- eled between home and work, thus also depriving the electric company of fares. The earliest competition was by use of private cars principally, all of which tended to divert patronage.

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Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II, Part 41

Author: Carroll, Charles, author Publication date: 1932 Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716