Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1910 — Page 2 Advertisements Column 1 [ADVERTISEMENT]

WHERE WASHINGTON'S HISTORIC CHAIN BRIDGE GETS ITS NAME, n* CkAia DrMn at il laalud ta 1*42, Irtm ta old pttet. The first question that Is generally asked by persons arriving at Washington's Chain bridge for the first time Is, “Where are the chains?" There are no chains, and there have .been none for the last half century or more. But there were chains at one'time that particularly designated the bridge that crosses the Potomac river at the Little Falls, several miles above Georgetown. The chains, too, were the all-important part of the bridge, says the Washington Post, for it was borne entirely by chains. The first bridge over the Potomac at Little Falls, the head of navigation of the river, was built in 1809. |t was built by a Mr. Palmer, and lasted only a short time, when it fell to pieces during a violent spring freshet. A second bridge took its place, but that only lasted even a shorter time, about six months. What was known as the? Chain bridge was erected in 1810. It was a suspension bridge, supported entirely by chains thrown over the piers erected upon the abutments, which were about twenty feet high. These chains were four in number. The pendents were hung on them alternately about five feet apart, so that each chain received a pendent in every feet The bridge was invented by Judge Findley, who lived near Uniontown, Pa., and where he had erected a similar chain bridge, which performed very good service for many years. The span of the bridge was 128% feet and the width sixteen feet. Its weight was about twenty-two tons, which was regarded aa a heavy weight in the bridge line in those days. On March 3, 1853, Congress passed an act appropriating a sufficient sum of money to repair the bridge, and incidentally took the corporation of Georgetown oyt of the transaction, the United States stepping in as its owner, a transaction which was perfectly satisfactory to all concerned. This repaired bridge was still practically a chain bridge, though in the repairs iron in other forms was considerably used. The bridge covered only the ri%er channel proper, there being a dirt roadway that approached the bridge from either side. It was the washing away of these approaches more than injury to the bridge itself that put the Chain bridge out of commission so frequently, for it became almost an annual occurrence, particularly during the spring freshets, though in two or three yeajs the washouts also occurred during the fall storms. ‘ The Chain bridge, besides being famous for its chains and equally famous because it has no chains, played a very important part during the Civil War. At one time one end of it was in possession of the Confederates, while the other end was guarded by Union troops. ' - In the military campaigns in which the famous army of the, Potomac took such a prominent part the larger part of the transportation tpok place over the Long bridge and the Aqueduct bridge, several miles down the .Potomac. Still, the Chain bridge was .a place of great activity and interest throughout the entire war. It was surrounded by fortifications for its protection in case an effort was made by the enemy to use it as an approach to Washington, and was at all times a very busy locality. The winters when the army was camped in near-by regions of Virginia brought a good deal of traffic to the Chain bridge. In 1872 Congress' put an end to the Chain bridge, except in name, by appropriating SIOO,OOO for the present iron bridge. Though there was nothing in the act itself suggesting it, the old name still hangs to the bridge, though it has no semblance to chains about it.