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| Late November view of a memorial park, the Old Stone Bridge in Wayland, Mass. |
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| View from the 1957 replacement bridge, now itself in need of TLC. |
Just a few hundred paces from our front door we can step onto the stone remains of a living monument, at of one of the most crucial crossing points of the Revolutionary War. The Old Stone Bridge across the Sudbury river in Wayland occupies the site of a bridge from the 1700s. As the British closed off one by one the bridges that would allow passage of soldiers and arms to Boston, they overlooked just one: the predecessor of our Old Stone Bridge. General Knox, conducting cannon from Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York, knew of that small breach in the British line and used it to arm the Bostonians.
What is it like to stand, not on a memorial constructed in modern times, but on an actual artifact of our history? This is more real than any reality show. You can see by the pictures that time and the action of floods and freezes has crippled the bridge. The masonry stood, though, until a flood washed the west bank out from under its pilings. Rather than try any longer to accommodate modern traffic to the narrow monument, the state cut off the end of the old bridge and built a new bridge just upriver and rerouted Stonebridge road. Other pictures show that the newer bridge, built in 1957, now needs TLC or it will predecease its ancient stone neighbor.
The newest pictures, added 8/6/11, show that the Old Stone Bridge is NOT completely neglected, as it appeared to be last fall and winter. Note the new flowers, new flag. But by August, the newness is getting shaggy. It's hard to keep even half a step ahead of nature's urge to retake the America that the British don't want anymore.
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| Roy Barnacle photo. |
